Allamah Tabatabaii's Approach to interpreting Quranic Stories

The Most High God has used different methods for revealing Qur’anic verses in order to make known the divine messages. For example, He demonstrates to the addressees the prophet's morals as a model, relates the stories and accounts of bygone generations, or presents some of the dialogues between prophets and tyrant rulers and kings. One of the most common methods used by the Quran is "storytelling". A large portion of the Quranic verses is devoted to Quranic stories.Using an analytical approach, the present paper tries to answer the main question of this article, that is, what are the differences between Allamah Tabatabaii's commentary on Qur’anic stories and that of other commentators. According to Allamah Tabatabaii casting light on divine guardianship, interpreting the events and occurrences, taking lessons from other experience, explaining divine wonts, and condoling with the Holy Prophet (may the blessings and peace of God be upon him and his progeny) and his community is the most important aims of Quranic stories. Among the features of Al-Mizan Commentary regarding interpreting Quranic stories are emphasis on the realistic nature of Quranic stories, shedding light on the various aspects of stories, specifying the personality traits of the heroes of the stories, referring to the other verses and chapters when interpreting the stories, providing correct interpretation by referring to the apparent meaning of the verses, criticizing the biblical explanations on Quranic verses, and correct exposition of prophet's method.