An Egyptian Female Mufassīr: Kariman Hamza and Her Tafsīr Named al-Lu’lu’ wa al-Marjān fī Tafsīr al-Qur’ān

This study incvolves the analysis of al-Lu’lu’ wa’l-Marjān fī Tafsīr al-Qur’ān of Kariman Hamza (1942-2023), one of the Egyptian female mufessīr (exegete), and the determination of the tafsīr (exegesis) method she followed. In this context, the life of Kariman Hamza was researched, and the methods of her tafsīr al-Lu’lu’ wa’l-Marjān were analyzed in terms of riwāya (narration) and dirāya (reasoning). A qualitative research method was used in this study. The author’s work was systematically examined from beginning to end and evaluated using the document analysis method. However, Kariman Hamza, whose main profession is news reporter and television presenter, initially refused the request to interpret/exegesis the Qur’ān for children because she was not a graduate of al-Azhar University. Later, as a result of various requests, her interest in the Qur’ān and her television programmes on the subject, she decided to write a tafsīr. Her tafsīr is a three-volume work that she wrote in three years, focusing on tafsīr studies, and was approved by Al-Azhar University. Kariman Hamza sees the writing of her tafsīr on the basis of her religious programme and Islamic writings in her 35 years of broadcasting life and sees it as the fruit of her efforts to preach Islam. Kariman Hamza, who stated that the reader can read her tafsīr without being bored and that she wrote like a mother explaining something to her child, is one of the rare female writers who tafsīr the Qur’ān from beginning to end. The fact that there are very few studies on al-Lu’lu’ wa al-Marjān is one of the factors that makes this work unique. Analyzing the work in terms of the tafsīr method makes a significant contribution to the literature. The most distinctive aspect of the tafsīr is the comparative presentation of quotations from the Bible and the attempt to make connections with current events. One of the results of this article is that Kariman Hamza’s tafsīr, which she compiled from many sources of tafsīr and combined with her knowledge of the Qur’ān and the Sunnah, opens up the discussion of whether it is a tafsīr or a compilation work, and raises the question of how to name and interpret such works, examples of which are beginning to appear today, based on the perception of the mufassīr in the tafsīr tradition.