The Existential Breath of al-rahmān and the Munificent Grace of al-rahīm: The Tafsīr Sūrat al-Fātiha of Jāmī and the School of Ibn ^cArabī

Author： Rizvi Sajjad H.

Publisher： Edinburgh University Press

ISSN： 1755-1730

Source： Journal of Qur’anic Studies, Vol.8, Iss.1, 2006-4, pp. : 58-87

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Abstract

It has become commonplace to observe that every exegete brings to his commentary his own skills, preunderstandings and preconceptions about the text. Thus, when one reads a commentary from a particular perspective one expects to find the discipline and method of the exegete explicit in his work. This is especially true of philosophical and mystical commentaries on the Qur'an. The current paper considers the case of the tafsīr of the famous Persian poet CAbd al-Rahmān Jāmī (d. 898/1492) on the Fātiha, as an illustration of the metaphysics of the school of Ibn cArabī. In particular I will analyse his understanding of the basmala in the light of the Akbarī doctrine of divine mercy, juxtaposing the famous chapter on Zechariah from the Fusūs al-hikam, which presents the doctrine along with famous commentaries on it including that of Jāmī, with Jāmī's interpretation of the Qur'anic verse. What emerges is a highly systematic hermeneutic of the word of God in terms of a human scheme of metaphysics, in this case the application of the doctrines of the school of Ibn cArabī to the understanding of the basmala.