The Sabian doctrine in the Interpretations of the interpreters of the Qur’an
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Abstract
This paper is a study for one of the most important beliefs mentioned in the Holy Qur’an, which is the Sabian doctrine. It shows the directions of the main printed sources of Islamic Tafseer books that dealt with the Sabian beliefs with a comparison amongst them, through two topics: first: the comparison between the stories or the narrations of the interpreters of the Sabian belief, and the second: the comparison between Interpreters in the method of inference on the doctrine of the Sabian.
When comparing the narrations of the interpreters, many differences among them appear through five demands: first: the comparison between the Interpreters in defining the Sabian creed, second: comparison between the Interpreters in the narration checking if the Sabian were monotheists or polytheists , third: comparison between the Interpreters in the narrations on the Sabian book, fourth: Comparison between the Interpreters in the narrations on the Sabian prophet, and the fifth: Comparison between the Interpreters in the narrations on the origin of the Sabian religion, is it heavenly, distorted, or man-made?
Regarding the comparison of the inference methods for the Sabian creed, the interpreters agreed to use some of the inference methods under the following points: first, those interpreters who relied on the language to infer the Sabian creed; second, those interpreters who relied on antiquities to infer the Sabian creed.
One of the most significant findings of the study was the ambiguity of this creed amongst interpreters, their inability to define its beliefs, and their confusion on telling stories surrounding it. This may be because the Sabians didn't spread throughout the countries so that people presumed that they had totally vanished, so there is no trace of them. As for majority of interpreters are lack of inference regarding Sabian doctrine, through Sabian sources, Sabian history, and reality, so they relied on linguistic and archaeological evidence.