On Sunday, 1st June 2025, Dr Haidar Hobballah participated in the weekly academic seminar hosted by the Research Department at Mofid University, in collaboration with the Centre for Qur’anic Studies in Iran. The session was held virtually via the Skyroom platform and featured Dr Hobballah’s lecture titled: “The Specification of the Qur’an by a Single Report: A Comparative Study of Islamic Usuli Schools.”
In his lecture, Dr Hobballah explored the historical divergence among various Islamic Usuli schools concerning a nuanced and often contested issue: whether the Qur’an can be qualified or restricted by a solitary (khabar al-wāḥid) report. Positioned at the crossroads of Qur’anic exegesis, Hadith studies, and Islamic legal theory (uṣūl al-fiqh), this topic has long provoked debate within the Islamic intellectual tradition.
Dr Hobballah paid particular attention to the hermeneutical and epistemological foundations of the Hanafi Usuli tradition, which historically rejects the authority of solitary reports in specifying Qur’anic injunctions. He analysed the semantic and legal reasoning that underpins this position, offering insights into its implications for Qur’anic interpretation and legal methodology.
He then compared this approach with that of the Twelver Shi‘i Usuli school, especially its developments following Shaykh Murtada al-Ansari, tracing the evolving positions within Shi‘i legal thought and highlighting key moments of convergence and divergence between Sunni and Shi‘i traditions.
