Chapter VIII: Excellence of the Quran
Regarding the external meaning of the Quran, there are innumerable sayings of the Prophet. The Prophet said : He who interprets the Quran according to his own opinion should seek his abode in Hell Thus he prohibited individual interpretation according to his own opinion. Hazrat Abu Bakr said : If I interpret the Quran according to my opinion what world will give me protection and what sky will give me shade ? This prohibition has got two objects. The first object is to limit it in Hadis and Tafsir, not to discover new meanings and to give up independent thinking. The second object is other than that. If its object is that a man cannot interpret the Quran except according to the standard Tafsirs, it is void for the reasons given below.
(1) One condition of interpretation is that it should rest upon the interpretation of the Prophet. If it is accepted. Tafsirs of Ibn Abbas and Ibn Masud cannot be accepted as they had their opinion also therein.
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(2) There are different opinions regarding the inter pretation of some verses among the companions. It was not possible for them to be unanimous. Everybody did not interpret it after hearing it from the Prophet, then their own opinions are fit to be rejected. It is well known that the interpreters extracted many meanings by applying their intellect. Even they had seven interpretations of the abbreviated words at the beginning of a chapter. So how can it be said that they interpretated them by hearing every thing from the Prophet?
(3) The Prophet prayed for Ibn Abbas by saying : O God, give him knowledge in theology and give him learning of interpretation. What is then the meaning of his special prayer for him if interpretation cannot come except from his saying?
(4) "Those who discover meaning by their intellect know it certainly'- in this verse, to discover meanings by exercise of intellect by the learned men has been spoken of. To discover open meanings is different from what is heard. The tradition regarding the interpretation of the Quran is opposed to this verse. So it appears that it is incorrect to impose condition of Tafsir only in all interpretations and it is lawful to discover the meaning of the Quran according to the limit of one's own intelligence and intellect.