A Review of the Nature and Position of Linguistic-Literary Principles in Selecting Readings in Majma' al-Bayan

Shaykh Tabarsi believes that firstly the sending down and proclamation of the Qur'an is just based on one reading; secondly he does not consider even one letter of the Qur'an as futile, thirdly, he accounts the reading diversity to appear after the proclamation of the Qur'an, and fourthly, does not regard the Qur'an and the readings as two distinct realities but believes in the synoptic knowledge of the divine reading and tries to definitely determine the divine reading or prefer it via conjecture and through adopting a number of principles including some linguistic-literary ones. Using a descriptive-analytical method, the present research analyzed the characteristics of the aforementioned principles and besides explaining their conceptual elements, states the position of their usage from Shaykh Tabarsi's view and eventually scrutinizes these principles.