05

When the reports differ

الترجيح

On a disputed word he lists every early view he has, then he chooses. His tools are plain. What the Arabic of the ayah actually says. How the Quran uses the same word elsewhere. The context of the verses around it. Which report is better carried. What most of the reciters and the early mufassirun took. He is not shy. He will say the first of these is correct, or this is the closest to the speech of the Arabs. That choice is his ijtihad. It is not wahy.

List, then weigh, then speak. If two later books disagree, open Tabari and see whether both views were already on his page. That is often the start of the answer, not the end.

He had a madhhab of his own for a time — the Jariri school. It did not survive. His tarjih in tafsir did.