Critical Studies on the Quranic Exegesis

Critical Studies on the Quranic Exegesis

Q. 4:24 (the Mut'a Verse) in Shiite Exegesis: A Critique of Robert Gleave's Historical Reading

Document Type : Original article

Authors
Zahra Darvish 1
Soheila Jalali Kondori 2
1 PhD Student of Qurʾān and Hadith Sciences, Department of Quranic Studies and Hadith, Faculty of Theology, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran.
2 Associate Professor, Department of Quranic studies and Hadith, Faculty of Theology, Alzahra University, Tehran ,Iran.
10.22034/naghdeara.2026.589638.1410
Abstract
This study critically evaluates Robert Gleave’s 1998 article “Shiite Exegesis & the Interpretation of Quran 4: 24,” which examines the historical development of Shiite commentary on the mutʿa verse. Gleave argues that the variable presence of the interpretive addition “ilā ajal musammā” in Shiite sources reflects the community’s oscillating attitude toward the Quranic text, driven by polemical needs in disputes with Sunnism. The present article acknowledges Gleave’s contribution in offering a historically oriented survey and in distancing himself from earlier Orientalist claims of textual corruption. However, it identifies significant methodological weaknesses: unwarranted generalization from a limited sample of approximately eighteen commentaries to the entire Shiite exegetical tradition; failure to distinguish between inherited exegetical reports, written compilations, and mature exegetical schools; reliance on secondary Orientalist sources at the expense of direct engagement with primary texts; mistranslation of key passages, including Faḍlallāh’s Min Waḥy al-Qurʾān; and misattribution of the “ilā ajal musammā” addition to commentaries that do not discuss the verse. The study argues that variation in the citation of this phrase is better explained by the exegetes’ careful terminological distinction between revelation and interpretation than by textual instability. The critique is offered from within an Imami Shiite theological framework and calls for a more granular approach to the history of Shiite tafsīr.
Keywords
Orientalist Methodology
Imami Exegesis
Qirāʾāt Traditions
Historiography of Exegesis
Critique of Orientalists
Subjects
ـ                 The Holy Qurʾān, Original Arabic; Also, Persian translation by Muḥammad Mahdī Fulādvand, Tehran, Daftar-e Muṭāliʿāt-e Tārīkh va Maʿārif-e Islāmī, 1376 SAH [Persian].
ـ                 ʿAlavī Mihr, Ḥusayn, Ravish-hā va Girāyish-hā-yi Tafsīrī, Tehran, Uswah, 1391 SAH [Persian].
ـ                 Ālūsī, Sayyid Maḥmūd, Rūḥ al-Maʿānī, Beirut, Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyyah, 1415 AH [Arabic].
ـ                 ʿĀmilī, Sayyid Javād, Miftāḥ al-Karāmah, Qom, Jamāʿa al-Mudarrisīn, 1419 AH [Arabic].
ـ                 Amīn, Muḥsin, Aʿyān al-Shīʿah, Beirut, Dār al-Maʿārif li-l-Maṭbūʿāt [Arabic].
ـ                 Āqā Buzurg Tihrānī, Muḥammad Muḥsin, Al-Dharīʿah, Qom, Ismāʿīliyyān, 1408 AH [Arabic].
ـ                 Ardabīlī, Aḥmad b. Muḥammad, Majmaʿ al-Fāʾidah wa al-Burhān, Qom, Enteshārāt-e Islāmī, 1403 AH [Arabic].
ـ                 ʿArūsī Ḥuwayzī, ʿAbd ʿAlī b. Jumʿah, Tafsīr Nūr al-Thaqalayn, Qom, Intishārāt-e Ismāʿīliyyān, 1415 AH [Arabic].
ـ                 Ayāzī, Muḥammad ʿAlī, Sayr-e Taṭawwur-e Tafāsīr-e Shīʿah, Rasht, Nashr-e Mobīn, 1381 SAH [Persian].
ـ                 ʿAyyāshī, Muḥammad b. Masʿūd, Al-Tafsīr, ed. Sayyid Hāshim Rasūlī Maḥallātī, Tehran, Chāpkhānah-yi ʿIlmiyyah, 1380 SAH [Arabic].
ـ                 Baghawī, Ḥusayn b. Masʿūd, Maʿālim al-Tanzīl, Beirut, Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 1420 AH [Arabic].
ـ                 Baghdādī, ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn, Lubāb al-Taʾwīl, Beirut, Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyyah, 1415 AH [Arabic].
ـ                 Baḥrānī, Sayyid Hāshim, Al-Burhān, Tehran, Bunyād-e Biʿthat, 1416 AH [Arabic].
ـ                 Burton, Sources of Islamic Law, Edinburgh, 1990.
ـ                 Dhahabī, Muḥammad Ḥusayn, Al-Tafsīr wa al-Mufassirūn, Beirut, Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī [Arabic].
ـ                 Deymah Kār Garrāb, Muḥsin and Irvānī Najafī, Murtadā, “Ravesh-e ʿAllāmah Ṭabāṭabāʾī dar Muwājihah bā Ikhtilāf-e Qirāʾāt dar Al-Mīzān”, Taḥqīqāt-e ʿUlūm-e Qurʾān va Ḥadīth, vol. 12, no. 27, Autumn 1394 SAH [Persian].
https://doi.org/10.22051/tqh.2015.2042
ـ                 Faḍl Allāh, Sayyid Muḥammad Ḥusayn, Min Waḥy al-Qurʾān, Beirut, Dār al-Malāk li-l-Ṭibāʿah wa al-Nashr, 1419 AH [Arabic].
ـ                 Fakhr Rāzī, Abū ʿAbd Allāh, Mafātīḥ al-Ghayb, Beirut, Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 1420 AH [Arabic].
ـ                 Fākir Maybudī, Muḥammad, “Ikhtilāf-e Qirāʾāt va Naqsh-e Ān dar Tafsīr az Dīdgāh-e ʿAllāmah Ṭabāṭabāʾī”, Qurʾān Shinākht, vol. 4, no. 8, Winter 1390 SAH, 93-120 [Persian].
ـ                 Fayḍ Kāshānī, Muḥammad Muḥsin, Al-Ṣāfī, Tehran, Intishārāt-e Ṣadr, 1415 AH [Arabic].
ـ                 Furāt Kūfī, Abū al-Qāsim, Al-Tafsīr, ed. Muḥammad Kāẓim Maḥmūdī, Tehran, Sāzmān-e Chāp va Intishārāt-e Vizārat-e Irshād-e Islāmī, 1410 AH [Arabic].
ـ                 Gleave, R., “Early Shīʿī Hermeneutics: Some Exegetical Techniques Attributed to the Shīʿī Imams”, Aims, Methods & Contexts of Quranic Exegesis, Oxford University Press, 2013.
ـ                 Gleave, R., “Shiite Exegesis & the Interpretation of Qurʾān 4: 24”, University Lectures in Islamic Studies, vol. 2, 1998, 79-112. Reprinted in: Paul Luft & Colin Turner (eds.), Shiism: Critical Concepts in Islamic Studies, London & New York, Routledge, vol. 3, 303-330.
ـ                 Ḥurr ʿĀmilī, Muḥammad b. Ḥasan, Wasāʾil al-Shīʿah, Qom, Āl al-Bayt, 1409 AH [Arabic].
ـ                 Ḥusaynī Shāh ʿAbd al-ʿAẓīmī, Ḥusayn b. Aḥmad, Tafsīr-e Ithnā ʿAsharī, Tehran, Intishārāt-e Mīqāt, 1363 SAH [Persian].
ـ                 Ibn Abī Jumhūr, Muḥammad b. Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn, Ghawālī al-Laʾālī, Qom, Dār Sayyid al-Shuhadāʾ li-l-Nashr, 1405 AH [Arabic].
ـ                 Ibn Qutaybah, ʿAbd Allāh b. Muslim, Gharīb al-Qurʾān, ed. Aḥmad Ṣaqr, Beirut, 1978 [Arabic].
ـ                 Jeffrey, Arthur, Materials for the History of the Text of the Quran, Leiden, Brill, 1937.
ـ                 Karīmiyān, Maḥmūd, “Mafhūm Shināsī-yi Tarkīb-hā-yi Ham-sū bā Hakadhā Nazalat va Shubhah-yi Taḥrīf-e Qurʾān”, ʿUlūm-e Ḥadīth, vol. 19, no. 74, Winter 1393 SAH, 75-98 [Persian].
ـ                 Kāshānī, Mullā Fatḥ Allāh, Manhaj al-Ṣādiqīn fī Ilzām al-Mukhālifīn, Tehran, Kitābfurūshī-yi Muḥammad Ḥasan ʿIlmī, 1366 SAH [Arabic].
ـ                 Majlisī, Muḥammad Bāqir, Biḥār al-Anwār, Beirut, Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 1403 AH [Arabic].
ـ                 Maʿrifat, Muḥammad Hādī, Al-Tafsīr wa al-Mufassirūn, Mashhad, Dāneshgāh-e ʿUlūm-e Islāmī-yi Raḍawī, 1418 AH [Arabic].
ـ                 Maʿrifat, Muḥammad Hādī, Al-Tamhīd, Qom, Muʾassasah-yi al-Nashr al-Islāmī, 1415 AH [Arabic].
ـ                 Qāsimī, Muḥammad Jamāl al-Dīn, Maḥāsin al-Taʾwīl, Beirut, Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyyah, 1418 AH [Arabic].
ـ                 Qummī Mashhadī, Muḥammad, Kanz al-Daqāʾiq, Tehran, Sāzmān-e Chāp va Intishārāt-i Vezārat-e Ershād-e Islāmī, 1368 SAH [Arabic].
ـ                 Qurashī, Sayyid ʿAlī Akbar, Aḥsan al-Ḥadīth, Tehran, Bunyād-e Biʿthat, 1377 SAH [Persian].
ـ                 Ṣāfī Iṣfahānī, ʿAlī Akbar; Sutūdah Niyā, Muḥammad Riḍā, “Ṭabaqah-bandī va Taḥlīl-e Ārāʾ-e Faqīhān-e Shīʿah dar Ḥawzah-yi Ikhtilāf-e Qirāʾāt”, Kitāb-e Qayyim, vol. 7, no. 17, Winter 1396 SAH, 29-54 [Persian].
ـ                 Schacht, Joseph, The Origins of Muhammadan Jurisprudence, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1950.
ـ                 Shahīdī Ṣāleḥī, ʿAbd al-Ḥusayn, Tafsīr va Tafāsīr-e Shīʿah, Qazvīn, Ḥadīth-e Emrūz, 1381 SAH [Persian].
ـ                 Shākir, Muḥammad Kāẓim, Mabānī va Ravish-hā-yi Tafsīrī, Qom, Markaz-e Bayn al-Milalī-yi Tarjumah va Nashr-e al-Muṣṭafā, 1389 SAH [Persian].
ـ                 Shaykh Ṭūsī, Muḥammad b. Ḥasan, Al-Tibyān, ed. Aḥmad Ḥabīb Qaṣīr ʿĀmilī, Najaf, Maṭbaʿat al-Nuʿmān, 1383 AH/1964 [Arabic].
ـ                 Suyūṭī, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Abī Bakr, Al-Itqān, Beirut, Dār al-Kutub al-ʿArabī, 1421 AH [Arabic].
ـ                 Ṭabāṭabāʾī, Muḥammad ʿAlī, et al., Tafsīr-e Imāmiyyah dar Pizhūhish-hā-yi Gharbī, Qom, Dār al-Ḥadīth, 1395 SAH [Persian].
ـ                 Ṭabāṭabāʾī, Sayyid Muḥammad Ḥusayn, Al-Mīzān, Qom, Jāmiʿah-yi Mudarrisīn, 1417 AH [Arabic].
ـ                 Ṭabarsī, Faḍl b. Ḥasan, Majmaʿ al-Bayān, Tehran, Nāṣir Khusraw, 1372 SAH [Arabic].
ـ                 Tajār, Shīvā and Pūyāzādah, Aʿẓam, “Barrisī-yi Taḥlīlī-yi Taḥawwul-e Tārīkhī-yi Pizhūhish-hā-yi Gharbiyān Dar Bārah-yi Tafsīr-e Shīʿah 1900-2016”, Muṭāliʿāt-e Qurʾānī va Farhang-e Islāmī, vol. 3, no. 1, Spring 1398 SAH, 49-72 [Persian].
ـ                 Zamakhsharī, Maḥmūd, Al-Kashshāf, Beirut, Dār al-Kitāb al-ʿArabī, 1407 AH [Arabic].
Critical Studies on the Quranic Exegesis
Volume 7, Issue 1 - Serial Number 13
September 2026
Pages 341-366

  • Receive Date 05 July 2026
  • Revise Date 29 August 2026
  • Accept Date 29 August 2026