The Approach of The Shiʿī Exegetists to The Instances of ‘Umar's Muwāfaqāt Cover Image

Şiî Müfessirlerin Muvâfakât-ı Ömer Örneklerine Yaklaşımı
The Approach of The Shiʿī Exegetists to The Instances of ‘Umar's Muwāfaqāt

Author(s): Abdurrahman Ensari
Subject(s): Theology and Religion, Islam studies
Published by: Cumhuriyet Üniversitesi İlahyat Fakültesi
Keywords: Tafsir; Shiʿī; Sunnī; ‘Umar; ‘Umar's Muwāfaqāt;

Summary/Abstract: Knowing the occasions related to the revelation of the Qur'ānic verses is one of the factors contributing to its correct understanding. Since the examples named as "Umar's Muwāfaqāt" (corcurrences of Umar’s perception with certain divine revelatio) is related to the occasion of Qur'ān's revelation, they also contribute to the understanding of the related verses. ‘Umar's Muwāfaqāt instances refers here to the subject mentioned after his expression of "I agreed with my Lord in three things." His agreement with His Lord is that he delivered an anticipating opinion, appropriate to God’s provision. This is considered to be of the great virtues of ‘Umar and of the most important sections of his life. Some narrated reports of ‘Umar's Muwāfaqāt shows that there were many occasions of agreement. Of these instances, the verses that come upon his request that Abraham’s Maqām is taken as a place of prayer and the Prophet’s wives to veil as well as his statement to the Prophet’s wives that God will grant him better wives than them if they give trouble to the Prophet. There have been conducted a number of studies on the subject of ‘Umar's Muwāfaqāt. However, these studies are generally framed by Sunnī sources. This study focuses on the way in which the instances of “‘Umar's Muwāfaqāt" included in the Sunni sources are discussed in the sources of Shi’a tafsir. Therefore, the study is the critique of the way that ‘Umar's Muwāfaqāt is handled in Shia tafsir sources.Summary: Muslim scholars particularly Qur’ānic exegetists, have conducted important works in numerous areas that have would have any relations to the Qur'an in order that it is understood correctly. No doubt that one of these areas deals with issues related to the reasons of revelation of Qur'anic verses. The examples named as "Muwāfaqāt ‘Umar" are related to the reasons of the revelation and contribute to the understanding of the Qur’ānic verses.Muwāfaqāt ‘Umar literally means “the agreements of ʿUmar” (i.e. with God). It is taken from his expression, "I agreed with my Lord in three things." His agreement with His Lord is that he delivered an anticipating opinion, appropriate to God’s provision. This is considered to be of the great virtues of ‘Umar and is regarded as one of the most important sections of his life.The numerous narrations on Muwāfaqāt ‘Umar show that there were many occasions of such agreement. Actually, some scholars raised the number of muwāfaqāt to twenty. This study does not deal with all instances of Muwāfaqāt ‘Umar, as such an undertaking would require more extensive research to cover the topic in-depth. Hence, only five instances of the muwāfaqāt are discussed:The verse revealed after his request that the Maqām of Abraham is taken as a place of prayer (Q 2:125).The verse revealed after requesting that the Prophet orders his wives to veil (Q 33:53).The verse revealed after his statement to the Prophet’s wives that God will grant him better wives if they continue to bother the Prophet (Q 66:5).The verses revealed in agreement with his view on the judgment upon the captives of the Battle of Badir (Q 8:67-69).The verse revealed in agreement with his demand that the Prophet should not perform the funeral prayer on Abdullah b. Ubayy when the Prophet had willed to do so (Q 9:84). A number of studies have been conducted on the subject of Muwāfaqāt ‘Umar. However, these studies are generally within the framework of Sunni sources. This study, on the other hand, discusses how the above cited five instances of “Muwāfaqāt ‘Umar" are mentioned or ignored in the most prominent Shi’î tafsir sources. Therefore, the study is the critique of the way that Muwāfaqāt ‘Umar is handled in the most prominent Shi’i exegesis.Following a survey of existing research, no previous study of this topic was found. Thus, this study is expected to make a new contribution to the field. In this study, the following process was generally followed: Initially, ‘Umar’s Muwāfaqāt with His Lord was defined, followed by providing brief information of the instances of these muwāfaqāt incorporated within the Sunni sources. Then, of those accepted "muwāfaqāt" within Sunni sources, only five instances were selected, as cited above. This was followed by the "case of these examples in the primary exegesis of the Shia", which constitutes the main theme of this study. The designated case was then analysed and evaluated in order to reach a conclusion on the topic at hand.As a result of this research, the following conclusions were reached:It is seen that some instances of Muwāfaqāt ‘Umar cited in the Sunni sources have not been mentioned at all in the Shi’i Tafsir sources; such as the examples of the verse revealed after ‘Umar’s request that the station or maqām of Abraham is taken as a place of prayer. Also, the same was observed for the verse revealed after his demand that the Prophet should not perform the funeral prayer on Abdullah b. Ubayy when the Prophet willed to do so. It was found that the reason for these exclusions may be the fact that the narrations do not comply with the hadith criteria of Shi’a.In the cases where there are two narratives which the former clearly show that the occasion is from the Muwāfaqāt 'Umar and the latter that it is revealed for another case and they have both the same soundness and narrators, it is seen that the narrations non-related to 'Umar is cited and the narration related to ‘Umar is either not mentioned at all or pointed out that it is weak. An example of this is the Hijab verse, revealed after ‘Umar’s request that the Prophet’s wives wear the veil. It may be understood that the position that the Shi’i interpreters exhibit about such examples is based entirely on sectarian fanaticism and they ignore the narrations that can be interpreted as 'Umar's virtue.It is one of the remarkable points that while the Shi’i exegetists do not mention the narrations related to Muwāfaqāt Umar cited and considered as his virtue in Sunni sources, they on the other hand, cite within the same sources some narrations which condemn Ḥafṣah and ‘Ā’ishah. These exegetists follow this perspective in the interpretation of the verse revealed after ‘Umar’s statement to the Prophet’s wives that God will grant to him wives better than them if they continue bothering the Prophet. It can be commented that this approach of the Shi’i exegetists in their Tafsirs towards ‘Umar is also another manifestation of their negative attitude towards him.The Shi’i exegetists argue that the bulk of muwāfaqāt narrations cited in the Sunni sources of tafsir are unsound and fabricated as Shi’i exegetists are deluded that such narrations lay blame on the Prophet. In this context, with regards to the verse on the captives of the Battle of Badr revealed in agreement with ‘Umar’s view, all these narrations are deemed unsound and fabricated. It may be concluded these narrations, in reality, do not put the Prophet at fault and therefore their deductions of such interpretations stem from their misinterpretations of the related narrations.

  • Issue Year: 22/2018
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 571 - 596
  • Page Count: 26
  • Language: Turkish