The Qur'anic sciences (ulum al-Qur'an)

The Qur'anic sciences are the disciplines used to understand and interpret the Qur'an. Al-Zarkashi says they cannot be bounded, and that earlier scholars had missed writing a book gathering their types, as had been done for hadith; so he wrote al-Burhan in forty-seven types. ^{1 2}

Layla Muhammad Mas'ud's thesis traces the stages of the field: before al-Zarkashi the exegete's learning was scattered through commentaries such as those of al-Tustari, al-Tabari, al-Zamakhshari and al-Qurtubi; in separate studies of abrogation, the occasions of revelation, the rare words of the Qur'an, its inimitability, its grammar and its rulings; and then in incomplete works, among them Ibn al-Jawzi's Funun al-Afnan fi Ulum al-Qur'an in the sixth century and al-Sakhawi's Jamal al-Qurra' wa-Kamal al-Iqra' in the seventh. ³ Then al-Zarkashi wrote al-Burhan in the eighth century, followed by al-Suyuti's al-Itqan; and in modern times came Subhi al-Salih's Mabahith fi Ulum al-Qur'an, Muhammad Abd Allah Draz's al-Naba' al-Azim and al-Zurqani's Manahil al-Irfan. ³ Al-Suyuti also wrote al-Tahbir fi Ulum al-Tafsir, in one hundred and two types, and Itmam al-Diraya li-Qurra' al-Nuqaya. ⁴

Muhammad Rizq Satur, in his foreword to al-Burhan, reports that al-Qadi Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi in Qanun al-Ta'wil counted the Qur'anic sciences as the number of its words times four, and divided them into three: divine unity, which includes knowledge of creation and of the Creator through His names, attributes and acts; reminder, including promise and threat, Paradise and Hell; and rulings, including all obligations. ⁵ How far this field extends is debated; see Does the Qur'an contain the roots of every science?.