The Interpretive Method of Abu Hamza al-Thumali

Abstract

The death of Abu Hamza occurred in the year150 AH. The significance of Abu Hamza al-Thumali’s exegesis lies in its historical antiquity on the one hand and in his long life on the other hand. He lived during the time of three of the well-known Imams of Ahl al-Bayt (peace be upon them), closely accompanying the pure source and receiving knowledge from them. Thus, he was directly connected to the prophetic tradition, embodied in the sayings, actions, and approvals of the Infallibles, as acknowledged in the Shiʿi Imami school. Abu Hamza wrote a tafsir (exegesis), which became a reference and source for scholars and authors up until the time of Ibn Shahr Ashub. Unfortunately, his book was later lost. One of our contemporary scholars, Sheikh Abdul-Razzaq Hirz al-Din, attempted to reconstruct this tafsir by collecting the scattered narrations of Abu Hamza found in hadith and exegesis books and then compiling them into a single work entitled Tafsir al-Qur’an al-Karim by Abu Hamza al-Thumali. This research seeks to identify Abu Hamza’s methodology in tafsir. He did not follow a fixed interpretive method but can be said to have adopted a comprehensive approach: interpreting the Qur’an with the Qur’an whenever possible, then relying on reliable hadith, and otherwise using rational methods to determine the intended meaning of the text. Thus, he moved flexibly across interpretive methods, though his tafsir is strongly characterised by reliance on transmitted narrations (riwayat), naturally due to his close association with the Imams (peace be upon them). Consequently, hadith scholars and narrators regarded him as a trustworthy transmitter of the Imams’ sayings, and this predominated in his tafsir.