A Critique of Ālūsī's view on the Verses of Ikmāl (Completion) and Tablīgh (Propagation)

Sayyed Maḥmūd Ālūsī al-Baghdadi, the author of Rūḥ al-Mẚānī fi Tafsīr al-Quran al-ʾAẓīm wa al-Sabʾ al-Mathānī, was an Islamic jurisprudent (faqih), scholar of the exegesis of the Quran, a scholar of hadiths and Arabic literature in 13th century AH with Salafi (tradional) and Ashʾarite beliefs. This is why he has frequently objected to views of Mutazilite and Shiite scholars. He maintains that the verse of Ikmāl (Compleon), revealed on the ʾArafa Day of the 10th year of Hijra (believed by Shiites to refer to the Imamate of Imam ʾAli) just refers to the compleon of Islam and its prevalence to other religions and the perfecon of blessings by the annihilaon of Jāhiliyya (the Ignorance Period), and the Verse of Tablīgh (Propagaon) revealed on the 18th day of Dhi alHajja of the 10th year of Hijra asks the Prophet (s) to obligate Muslims to love ʾAli (a). Shiite scholars disagree with such interpretaons; in this paper, we seek to examine Alusi’s views on these two verses.