Qanun al-Tawil

Qanun al-Tawil (The Canon of Interpretation) is a treatise on Quranic hermeneutics, theology, and scholarly methodology by the Andalusian Maliki jurist and judge Abu Bakr Ibn al-Arabi (468–543 AH / 1076–1148 CE) Mujam al-Muallifin+1.

Background and Composition

Ibn al-Arabi dictated the work in 533 AH (1139 CE), most likely while residing in Cordoba Qanun al-Tawil. He had previously dictated an extensive eighty-thousand-leaf exegesis titled Anwar al-Fajr over a span of twenty years, but its parts became scattered among people and were lost to him Sharh Muqaddimat al-Tashi…+1. When colleagues and students later urged him to produce another comprehensive commentary, he declined because of his advanced age and declining stamina, offering instead a concise summary of approximately one hundred leaves setting down universal rules of interpretation (qanun fi al-ta'wil) applicable to the entire Quran Qanun al-Tawil.

Title and Identification

While the author consistently cited the title as Qanun al-Tawil, later scholars referred to it by other designations based on its contents or excerpted portions Qanun al-Tawil. Ibn Khaldun cited it under the title Fawa'id al-Rihlah, whereas Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti referred to it as Kitab al-Rihlah or Tartib al-Rihlah due to the extensive travel recollections included in its opening chapters Qanun al-Tawil. In one manuscript collection, it was cataloged as Risalat al-Mustabsir because the copyist lacked the opening title page and took the phrase from the treatise’s opening sentence Qanun al-Tawil.

Contents and Structure

The treatise comprises just over fifty headings and sections, opening with an authorial sermon explaining the circumstances of its composition Qanun al-Tawil. This is followed by a detailed biographical and travel section documenting his journeys in search of knowledge across al-Andalus and the Islamic East, his meetings with scholars, and his assessments of contemporary cultural and religious life; this autobiographical material serves as an epitome of his lost travelogue, Tartib al-Rihlah fi al-Targhib ila al-Millah Qanun al-Tawil.

The subsequent sections lay out the methodological and theological foundations of interpretation, combining legal theory, Ash'ari kalam, and discussions on reason and revelation Qanun al-Tawil+1. It addresses arguments for the existence and oneness of God, the interpretation of divine attributes through figurative interpretation (ta'wil) or consignment (tafwid), and examines selected philosophical and mystical topics, including the nature of sleep, prophetic revelation, and esoteric allegorical exegesis Qanun al-Tawil+2.

Editions

Qanun al-Tawil was edited and critically studied by Muhammad al-Sulaymani as an academic doctoral dissertation at Umm al-Qura University and published in a single volume in 1406 AH / 1986 CE (Dar al-Qiblah, Jeddah, and Mu'assasat 'Ulum al-Qur'an, Beirut and Damascus) Qanun al-Tawil+1.