Abstract:聽This paper presents the extensive and in-depth research of Professor Andrew Rippin on the function of聽asbab聽in Qur’anic exegesis. His intention is to answer some very specific questions such as whether聽蝉补产补产听(辫濒耻谤补濒听asbab) provide history or strict exegesis. In order to hone in on the subject, he takes a very specific approach. The investigation is limited to the exegesis of the Qur’an聽written by Sunni authors in Arabic from the early (i.e., pre 6th-century聽hijri) period primarily (although not exclusively).
Professor Rippin’s study places its primary focus upon another exegetical sub-genre, that called聽asbab al-nuzul, which is devoted to compiling these reports. Each time a report is cited in this literature as a聽sabab聽for a verse, the exegetical employment of that聽sabab聽has been checked within the聽tafsir聽literature. The study was also limited to聽蝉耻谤补听2 in the Qur’an which presented some 107 verses to be treated.
The reason for this kind of representative selection of verses is to create a result that is statistical in order to see which purposes behind adducing the聽asbab聽material predominate and which are subsidiary.
Author
Professor Andrew Rippin
The late Professor Andrew Rippin (1950 – 2016) was a聽Professor of History and Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Victoria, Canada. His publications include聽The Qur’an and its interpretative tradition听补苍诲听Muslims, their religious beliefs and practices. He was also聽the editor of the聽Blackwell Companion to the Qur’an.