The College of Education for Humanities at the University of Baghdad held a discussion of a master’s thesis entitled “Narrations of Ahl al-Bayt (Peace Be Upon Them) in al-Ayyashi’s Tafsir: An Analytical Study.” The thesis was presented by Rasha Abbas Fadhil, a researcher in the Department of Quranic Sciences.
The discussion committee was chaired by Prof. Dr. Haifa Mohammed Abd, with Prof. Dr. Aqeel Razzaq Noman serving as a member and supervisor, and Asst. Prof. Dr. Ali Nihad Khalil as a member. Asst. Prof. Dr. Othman Shihab Ahmed from the College of Islamic Sciences at the University of Diyala also joined the committee as an external member.
The study aimed to identify and analyze the intellectual context and methodological transformation in the life of Sheikh al-Ayyashi and his relationship with his scholarly contemporaries. It also sought to examine the doctrinal and theological structure of narrations concerning divine unity and justice, the ontological continuity of prophethood and Imamate, and the eschatological dimension of the Hereafter. In addition, the study analyzed the legal and jurisprudential structure of the narrations from both jurisprudential and methodological perspectives, through comparative analysis with the four Sunni schools of jurisprudence, in order to highlight points of distinction and agreement.
The study reached several findings, most notably that the textual analysis of the doctrinal narrations revealed a highly developed theological structure. The narrations concerning divine unity and justice constituted an indirect polemical response that safeguarded Imami doctrinal thought against notions of anthropomorphism and corporealism promoted by certain sects at the time, while affirming the absolute transcendence of God through the teachings of Ahl al-Bayt.
