A Comparative Study of the Methodology of Understanding and Critiquing Narrations in the Al-Manar and Al-Furqan Exegeses

One of the sources of interpretation of the holy Quran is narration. Some interpreters suffice with reporting narrations while some others critique and analyze them. Al-Manar by Abdoh and Rashid Reza and Al-Furqan by Ayotollah Sadeqi Tehrani belong to the second group which critically look into the evidence and text of the narrations. The aim of this research is to have a comparative study of the analytical methodology concerning the narrations in the exegeses of Al-Manar and al-Furqan to see the way Sheikh Abdoh¡ Rashid Reza and Sadiqi Tehrani have treated the interpretative narrations. Moreover¡ the similarities and differences in the methodologies of these exegetes in their treatment of contradictory narrations have been discussed. This research concludes that 1. unlike what is commonly understood¡ not only in both exegeses the narrations are used for the purpose of interpretation¡ but also the exegetes have critiqued and analyzed the narrations¡ and 2. although the exegetes have employed both the methods of critiquing the evidence and textual analysis¡ yet textual analysis has been their major approach to their critique of the narrations in these exegeses. For this purpose¡ they have introduced certain criteria¡ such as the agreement of the narration and the holy Quran¡ definitive tradition and the principles of religious law¡ the Intellect¡ and definitive history¡ though they did not ignore the contradictory narrations and have tried in different ways to explain away the contradiction.