مقاصد سورة الأعراف في بناء الإنسان: دراسة تحليلية في ضوء تفسير ابن عاشور

Reconceptualising Human Development through the Maqāṣid of Sūrah al-Aʿrāf: An Analytical Study Based on Ibn ʿĀshūr’s Tafsīr

Abstract

This study investigates the maqāṣid (higher objectives) of Sūrah al-Aʿrāf in relation to human development through the exegetical framework of Imām Muḥammad al-Ṭāhir Ibn ʿĀshūr in al-Taḥrīr wa al-Tanwīr. As a Meccan sūrah that articulates a comprehensive paradigm of human formation, Sūrah al-Aʿrāf integrates doctrinal, ethical, and socio-civilizational dimensions within a unified Qur’anic vision of guidance. Despite its thematic depth, existing scholarship has insufficiently examined its maqāṣid in light of Ibn ʿĀshūr’s reform-oriented methodology, thereby necessitating a systematic analytical inquiry. Accordingly, this study aims to elucidate the higher objectives embedded in the sūrah and to explicate Ibn ʿĀshūr’s maqāṣid-based hermeneutics in constructing a holistic model of human development. Methodologically, the research adopts an analytical–inferential approach, involving a thematic examination of verses related to human formation and a critical analysis of Ibn ʿĀshūr’s interpretive strategies in deriving their educational and reformative implications. The findings demonstrate that Ibn ʿĀshūr advances an integrated model of human development structured around three principal dimensions: the doctrinal, which establishes faith (īmān) and tawḥīd as the epistemic foundation; the ethical, which emphasizes tazkiyah, self-discipline, and moral refinement; and the social, which underscores justice, accountability, and resistance to corruption as pillars of communal order. Furthermore, the study reveals that the maqāṣid of Sūrah al-Aʿrāf seek to harmonize reason and revelation, knowledge and praxis, and freedom and responsibility, thereby cultivating a balanced human personality capable of fulfilling its reformative and civilizational mandate. This integrative framework highlights the Qur’an’s enduring role as a transformative guide in shaping both individual virtue and societal well-being.