Muslim Interpreter’s Approach in the Interpretation of Quranic Verses related to Judaism

Sayyed Mohammad Ali Tabatabaie

 There are many verses in the Holy Quran which is concerned with other religions: their history and beliefs. Traditionally these verses are interpreted by mufassirun, but there is no one who has acted expertly in this field. Today, with all sciences being specialized, tafsir is no exception, and is moving toward the same direction, especially in today’s world, where scholars of religions are working on other religions more precisely than before and in a more referenced manner. This makes it imperative that the tafsir of Quranic verses on other religions be more specialized, since in this atmosphere we can no longer base our judgments regarding other religions merely on common and undocumented information. When someone ventures into the interpretation of the verses related to religions, he must be an expert in those religions, and preferably specialize and be well-versed in one specific religion, to be able to work on such verses with an objective and scientific view, free of all misinformation, allowing him to present an exegesis closer to the truth. To reach this aim, the first step is to know the history of the tradition of tafsir in regards to verses on religions. Judaism, among all religions, is more pointed to in the Holy Quran. So here we try to study the method of tafsir on the verses related to Judaism, from the beginning of Islam till now. In this study we will become familiar with the methods and the sources of mufassirun in this field, and learn of the errors from which they suffer.

 Key Words:Tafsir, Religion, Judaism, Methodology, Exegetical Method, Tafsir sources

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