Mafatih al-Ghayb A Reflection on Its Methodological Pattern

Abstract

"Mafatih al-Ghayb" may be referred to as an encyclopaedia of information on a number of disciplines such as philosophy, theology, logic, mysticism, linguistics, jurisprudence, psychology etc. This tafsir work is said to have been accomplished by three different scholars, al-Fakhr al-Din al-Rāzī (d.606 A.H.), Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Khuwayyi (d.693 A.H.), and Najm al-Din al-Qamüliyy (d.727 A.H.) consecutively. Yet, the methodological pattern applied throughout this work appears to be consistently uniform, raising the doubt over the claim that it was written by two more scholars, besides al-Rāzi. It may carefully be stated that the methodology applied of in this work is composed of around eleven dimensions: 1) identification of coherence between âyät and swar, 2) application of the principle of "the Qur'an interprets the Qur'an", 3) extraction of various issues and problems from an ayah or a passage; 4) application of logical and philosophical arguments to prove or disprove the interpretative views; 5) accumulation of almost all the available ideas from different sources on a matter concerning Qur anic statements; 6) discussion on jurisprudential matters in detail with a view to strengthening shafi'ite school of figh. 7) argumentation over semantic aspect of words; 8) information on reading styles of words and phrases; 9) deletion of Chain of Narrators from the Reports: 10) digression from the main theme; and 11) repudiation of Others' views in scathing manner. In this paper the author will try to reflect on the above-mentioned methodological components of "Mafarih al-Ghayb" with a critical overtones".