Sheikh Al-Balaghi in the course of Imami narrative evaluation between influence and impact

(An analytical study)

Abstract

Submission date: 21/09/2025

Acceptance date: 25/01/2026

Publication date: 30/03/2026

This study examines the methodology of narrative evaluation (riwāyah criticism) employed by Shaykh Muḥammad Jawād al-Balāghī (d. 1352 AH), considering it a prominent model within modern Imāmī Qur’anic exegesis. It analyzes the foundations of his approach to exegetical reports and clarifies their functional position in light of Qur’anic semantics, contextual coherence, and the overarching objectives of the discourse. The study aims to trace the development of narrative evaluation within the Imāmī tradition and to determine al-Balāghī’s position within this trajectory, both in terms of his engagement with earlier exegetes and his influence on later scholars.

The research adopts a critical-analytical methodology, complemented by a comparative approach. This is achieved through examining selected applications from al-Balāghī’s Ālāʾ al-Raḥmān fī Tafsīr al-Qurʾān and his other works, and comparing them with the methodologies of prominent Imāmī exegetes—particularly Shaykh al-Ṭūsī and Shaykh al-Ṭabarsī among the earlier scholars, and al-ʿAllāmah al-Ṭabāṭabāʾī, Muḥammad Jawād Mughniyah, and Sayyid Abū al-Qāsim al-Khuʾī among the later figures. The study focuses on analyzing attitudes toward exegetical reports of a narrative and theological nature, and their consistency with the Qur’anic conceptual framework.

The study concludes that al-Balāghī redefined the position of transmitted reports within Qur’anic exegesis by establishing the Qur’an as the primary authority in interpretation, reason as a regulating criterion, and narrative reports as subsidiary elements accepted only insofar as they conform to Qur’anic meaning. His methodology contributed to limiting the use of reports that impose superfluous unseen or legendary details not supported by textual context and that do not serve the Qur’an’s guiding purpose. The study further concludes that al-Balāghī constituted a pivotal link in the transition of Imāmī exegesis from extensive reliance on transmitted reports to a disciplined critical methodology, leaving a clear impact on contemporary Imāmī Qur’anic interpretation.