Abstract
AN ANALYSIS ON THE CONCEPT OF “TAKWA” ACCORDING TO CARULLAH ZAMAKHSHARI IN THE CONTEXT OF THE WORKS
Abū al-Qāsim Maḥmūd ibn Umar al-Zamakhsharī (d.538/1143) has a sophisticated personality. Although his origin was not ethnically Arabic, he has become quite prominent in the field of the Arabic language and literature. He composed works in almost every Islamic disciplines. His works had been appreciated by the scientific community. He mentioned numerous concepts and analyzed them. The virtue of “taqwa” takes part as one of the leading concepts that he attached importance and included primarily in his works. He associated the concept “taqwa” with numerous ethical behaviors such as justice, patience, modesty, fidelity as well as being honest. Al-Zamakhsharī emphasized that to be happy in the present life and afterlife is only possible if the human behaves in the manner of taqwa. His scientific methodology while analyzing a subject is referring first, the Qur’an, and then the Prophet Muhammad’s sayings. Indeed, this method takes part in the primary principles of Islamic epistemology. In this study we tried to analyze and scrutinize which forms of “taqwa” were discussed in his works. After mentioning both the meaning of the word and the term “taqwa”, we discussed the aforementioned concept with various formats taking part in his primary works. We can count Atwaku’z-Zahab fi’l-Mewa’iz w-ve’l-Hutab, Esasu-l-Belaga,al-Faiqfi Gharibi’l-hadis,al-Kashshâf, Makâmât, Rabîul-Ebrâr, and Nusus el-Ahyar as well as el-Kelimu’n-Newabiğ from such works.
Keywords
Zamakhsharî, Islam, Qur’an, Science, Taqwa.
