Is There Room for Imagination in Qur’anic Interpretation? Further Insights on the Reception of al-Zamakhsharī’s Imaginative Hermeneutics (Ṭarīq al-Takhyīl) in Post-Classical Qur’anic Commentaries

In his famed Qur’anic commentary, al-Kashshāf, al-Zamakhsharī (d. 538/1144) proposed a new hermeneutic and third way for interpreting the ambiguous verses (mutashābihāt) of Islamic scripture: an imaginative hermeneutic (ṭarīq al-takhyīl). While secondary scholarship has identified this innovative proposal and has attempted to identify precisely what is meant by al-Zamakhsharī’s imaginative hermeneutics, a fuller examination of its reception in the genre of Qur’anic commentary (tafsīr) awaits future study. In this paper, I examine encyclopedic, marginal glosses, as well as madrasa commentaries in the post-classical period to conclude that al-Zamaksharī’s proposal was debated and subsequently re-interpreted to conform with mainstream theological hermeneutics and Arabic rhetoric, ultimately neutralizing its revolutionary potential.