Ruh al-Bayan
- Author died
- 1127 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Fikr
Rūḥ al-Bayān (The Spirit of Elucidation), fully titled Rūḥ al-Bayān fī Tafsīr al-Qurʾān, is an Arabic commentary on the Quran authored by the Ottoman scholar and Sufi Ismail Haqqi (d. 1127 AH / 1715 CE), combining conventional exegesis with mystical, allusive interpretation (tafsir ishari) .
Background and Composition
The author recounts in the work's preface that upon his teacher's instruction to relocate to the city of Bursa, he undertook the duty of delivering sermons and admonitions at the Grand Mosque (al-Jāmiʿ al-Kabīr) . During his travels in the Ottoman lands, he had compiled scattered notes and excerpts from various Quranic commentaries and disciplines covering the text past Surat Al ʿImran . He resolved to synthesize, organize, and expand these collections into a unified commentary .
Ismail Haqqi originally intended to condense the work into one or two volumes, but as the material broadened, he structured it into three major installments . He concluded the first third (ending at Surat al-Tawbah) on a Sunday in the month of Safar while residing in Bursa at the house of al-Sayyid Muhammad Sabzi al-Mudarrisi . Surat al-Hijr was completed on 13 Rabiʿ al-Awwal 1104 AH . The second major volume was finished on a Sunday morning in Jumada al-Ula , and Surat Muhammad (al-Qital) was completed on Tuesday, 25 Dhu al-Hijjah 1113 AH . He reached the end of volume nine in early Rabiʿ al-Awwal 1116 AH . The entire commentary was completed on Thursday, 14 Jumada al-Ula 1117 AH (1705 CE), a duration spanning approximately twenty-three years—which the author noted mirrored the approximate timespan of Quranic revelation—amid extensive travels .
Method and Sources
Rūḥ al-Bayān integrates linguistic, rhetorical, and legal commentary with spiritual and ethical interpretations . The author incorporates the literal aspects of exegesis, addressing reasons for revelation (asbāb al-nuzūl), variant readings (qirāʾāt), Arabic grammar, lexicography, and Hanafi jurisprudence, alongside heart-softening traditions (raqāʾiq) and matters of inner purification (tazkiya) .
Following the outward analysis, he provides mystical allusions (ishārāt), quoting classical Sufi exegeses and treatises such as al-Taʾwīlāt al-Najmiyya of Najm al-Din Razi (and Ala al-Dawla al-Simnani), Kashf al-Asrār of Rashid al-Din al-Yazdi, and ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif . Although composed in Arabic, Ismail Haqqi frequently enriches the exposition with lines of Persian and Turkish poetry and prose, citing poets and masters such as Sa'di Shirazi . He also engages in letter symbolism (ʿilm al-hurūf), interpreting grammatical positions and individual letters of sacred formulas as stages of spiritual ascension and divine realization .
Reception and Editions
The work attained wide fame across both Arabic- and non-Arabic-speaking Muslim regions . In Sufi circles, it gained high esteem; modern exegetical historians note that its standing among Sufis was bolstered by its adherence to moderation, reliance on transmitted traditions and linguistic norms, and avoidance of excessive ecstatic utterances (shaṭaḥ) . Conversely, critics such as Shams al-Din al-Afghani censured the work, asserting that it was saturated with monistic concepts of the unity of existence (waḥdat al-wujūd) and ungrounded mystical narratives .
The book, also commonly referred to as Tafsīr Ḥaqqī, has been printed in multiple historical and modern formats, including four-volume and ten-volume editions published in Istanbul and Beirut .
Answer updated