Evolution of Character in the Exegesis Attitude to Theosophical Interpretations of Quran; the Story of Ibrahim in Focus

Story is one of the best and most accessible ways which Qur'an uses for conveying the concepts and explaining its religious teachings. Quranic stories are considered as narrations a large proportion of which is devoted to the lives of the prophets. As character is one of the main elements of a narrative and also, since after Moses, the prophet Ibrahim is the most frequent character in Quranic stories, the present article studies how the application of an exegesis approach to the four famous theosophical interpretations of Haghayegh-ol- Tafsir, Latayef-ol-Esharat, Kashf-ol-Asrar, and Rouz-ol-Jenan can detect the formation of the symbolic character of Ibrahim. The study uses library and documentary sources and conducts a descriptive method based on content analysis. The authors have shown that the exegesis approach has been effectively used in tracing the transformation of Ibrahim from the character of a divine prophet to a symbolic figure in theosophical interpretations written between the first to the sixth century. The element of character in these interpretations becomes a dynamic and evolving factor in the narrative plot line in such a way that about the interpretation of the Quran verses related to Ibrahim, we are sometimes faced with a seeker and sometimes with a traveller on the path where his experiences in spiritual conduct are evolving in the path of progress, that is, approaching the truth. From the point of view of mystic commentators, the frequency of divine afflictions in different stages of Ibrahim's life should form a perfect model for his followers.