Mafātīḥ al-Ghayb A Reflection on Its Methodological Pattern

Abstract

“Mafātīḥ al-Ghayb” may be referred to as an encyclopedia of information on a number of disciplines such as philosophy, theology, logic, mysticism, linguistics, jurisprudence, psychology, etc. This tafsir work is said to have been accomplished by three different scholars, al-Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzi (d.606 A.H.), Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Khuwayyi (d.693 A.H.), and Najm al-Din al-Qamūlīyy (d.727 A.H.) consecutively. Yet, the methodological pattern applied throughout this work appears to be consistently uniform, raising the doubt over the claim that it was written by two more scholars, besides al-Rāzi. It may carefully be stated that the methodology applied in this work is composed of around eleven dimensions:

• Identification of coherence between ayāt and swear,
• Application of the principle of “the Qur'ān interprets the Qur'an",
• extraction of various issues and problems from an ayah or a passage;
• application of logical and philosophical arguments to prove or disprove the interpretative views;
• accumulation of almost all the available ideas from different sources on a matter concerning Qur'ānic statements;
• discussion on jurisprudential matters in detail with a view to strengthening Shi'ite school of fiqh;
• argumentation over a semantic aspect of words;
• information on reading styles of words and phrases;
• deletion of Chain of Narrators from the Reports;
• digression from the main theme; and
• Repudiation of Others' views in a scathing manner. In this paper, the author will try to reflect on the above-mentioned methodological components of “Mafātīḥ al-Ghayb” with critical overtones”.