منهج الشنقيطي في تفسير القرآن بالسنة

Al-Shanqiti's Approach to Interpreting the Quran with the Sunnah.

Abstract

The Holy Quran is the last holy book of Allah. Which is in Arabic language. This great and holy book was revealed to the last prophet of Allah, Muhammad ﷺ. Whose mother tongue was Arabic and could understand this book very well. Then in this holy book, the purpose of the revelation of this book to him was told that he should open it up to the people and explain what was revealed to them from their Lord. So, the Holy Prophet Muhammad ﷺ fulfilled his duty. This method of Qur'anic rulings described by him is called Tafsir al-Qur'an by Sunnah, which is the most authentic method after Tafsir al-Qur'an by the Qur'an. This is because Allah Ta'ala, the One who revealed the Holy Qur'an, revealed its meanings and concepts to him regularly and made it clear that what Prophet Muhammad ﷺ would say would be a revelation from Allah. Then no one else can understand this revelation as much as the Holy Prophet ﷺ can understand it, because it was revealed to him. Therefore, the best method of Tafsir of the Holy Qur'an is Tafsir al-Qur'an with Sunnah after Tafsir al-Qur'an with the Qur'an. This method of Tafsir of the Holy Qur'an has been the focus of special attention among Muslim commentators since the beginning, where it received a lot of respect and honor, even it was considered the most authentic, correct, the most important and the most sacred method by Muslim commentators. Therefore, they kept this method in their commentaries (Tafaseer), that's why no book of Tafseer Bilamathur (تفسير بالمأثور) is free from it and this blessed series continues till now. Among the commentators who interpret the Holy Qur'an through the Sunnah is a mujtahid, jurist and muhadith, scholar of the fourteenth century, Sheikh Muhammad Al-Amin Al-Shanqiti (﷫). Whose important, famous and authoritative Tafsir is: "Azwa al-Bayan fi Tafsir al-Qur'an by Qur'an". In which, like other methods, he has arranged to interpret the Holy Qur'an through Sunnah and adopted various and several methods for this. Is this Tafsir really a Tafsir that can be called a modern model of Tafsir al-Qur'an by the Sunnah? And is this method of tafsir in the Tafsir of Imam Al-Shanqiti acceptable to the commentators?We will try to answer such questions in the article under consideration. And at the same time, we will also briefly review the efforts of some of the other great commentators who adopted this method, so that in the light of it, we can clarify the position that the best method of interpretation of the Holy Qur'an is through the interpretation of the Sunnah and we can formulate a remedy for some of the misconceptions that have been spread about this method.