Document Type : Research article
Authors
1
Professor, Department of Persian Language and Literature, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran.
2
Assistant Professor, Department of Persian Language and Literature, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran.
3
PhD Student in Persian Language and Literature, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran.
Abstract
In the early years following the passing away of the Prophet of Islam, Muslims generally devoted their efforts to the comprehensive preservation of the Qur’an, particularly its outward form. However, a number of factors rendered this endeavor only partially successful. Among the most significant of these factors were differences in Qur’anic readings (qirāʾāt) employed to justify interpretation, attempts to harmonize the text with the grammatical rules of the Arabic language, efforts to enhance the rhetorical and miraculous aspects of the Qur’an, and the absence of vowel signs, diacritical marks, and consonantal differentiation in early Arabic script. The emergence of the fourteen canonical Qur’anic readings may be regarded as one indication of the incomplete realization of this objective. Since no text remains entirely immune from change and intervention over the course of time, certain modifications to the Qur’anic text, supported by specific rationales, occurred among particular intellectual and ideological groups. Mystics and Sufis constitute one such group. Among their prominent figures isʿAyn al-Quḍāt Hamadānī, whose unconventional engagement with the Qur’anic text is grounded not only in intellectual and spiritual foundations of which taʾwīl (esoteric interpretation) forms an integral part but also in aesthetic, intuitive, and rhetorical considerations. In his interpretive practice and his extraction of semantic layers from the Qur’an, he advances to the point of employing various forms of defamiliarization, and in his use of Qur’anic verses, he at times intervenes even in their apparent wording. Adopting a descriptive–analytical method, based on library research, this article seeks to examine the types of Qur’anic interventions and the underlying reasons for them in the Persian works of ʿAyn al-Quḍāt. The findings indicate the interventions applied by this mystic to Qur’anic verses are rooted in his mystical worldview and are largely directed toward achieving rhetorical objectives. Furthermore, it appears that in numerous cases, reliance on memory has contributed to discrepancies between his citations and the canonical Qur’anic text.
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