The Department of Qur’anic Sciences at the College of Education Ibn Rushd for Humanities, University of Baghdad, held the defense of a PhD dissertation entitled “The Interpretive Possibilities Presented by Al-Qasimi (d. 1332 AH) in Mahasin al-Ta’wil: An Analytical Study,” submitted by researcher Sahar Ibrahim Khalaf.
The examination committee was chaired by Prof. Mayas Diaa Baqir and included Prof. Nidal Hanash Shbar as supervisor, together with a panel of faculty members from the department. External examiners were Prof. Abbas Mohammed Rashid from the College of Education for Women and Prof. Mohammed Talib Madloul from the College of Islamic Sciences, University of Babylon.
The dissertation aimed to examine the exegete Al-Qasimi and his renowned Qur’anic commentary Mahasin al-Ta’wil, highlighting the interpretive methodologies he employed and identifying the scholarly sources upon which he relied in presenting multiple interpretive possibilities.
The study concluded that interpretive possibility refers to the exegete’s attribution of two or more plausible meanings to a Qur’anic text while providing evidence supporting each interpretation. It also found that the emergence of interpretive diversity in Qur’anic exegesis was closely linked to the early development of tafsir, with differences among exegetes and the diversity of interpretive schools contributing significantly to the formation of multiple valid interpretations of Qur’anic verses.
