Abu Bakr al-Razi al-Jassas holds a prominent position among the Islamic scholars in general and the scholars of the Hanafi school of Islamic law in particular. He wrote many works and is especially known by his tafsir Ahkām alQur’ān (Rules from the Qur’ān), an interpretation of the Noble Qur’ān with a particular emphasis on the verses related to rules (ayāt al-ahkām), in which he applied the methodology of the Hanafi school of law (al-madhhab al-hanafi). This work is considered to be the only complete tafsir of that kind that has remained preserved in the Hanafi madhhab. With his scholarly excellence imam al-Jassas was ahead of his own era, the best proof of which is the fact that even nowadays, more than a thousand years after his death, his works are regarded as an extraordinarily important literature in several Islamic disciplines, especially in the exegesis of the Qur’ān (‘ilm at-tafsīr), Sharia law (al-fiqh) and its methodology (usūl al-fiqh). He is, therefore, greatly responsible for the recognition and preservation of the Hanafi madhhab, the law school with the greatest number of followers among Muslims today. Muslims of Bosnia-Herzegovina and the other Balkan regions are also followers of the Hanafi madhhab, so it is very important to familiarize oneself with this great man and his tafsir, the exegesis of the Qur’ān. This paper treats al-Jassas’ debate with two sects from the early period of Islam, the Kharijites and the Shi’ites. In his capital work on the exegesis of the Qur’ān, Ahkām al Qur’ān, this scholar provided extensive answers and proved, having applied a thorough scholarly analysis, that sectarian approaches to the Qur’ān are absolutely wrong, as they, actually, constitute fallacies and deviations spread by the enemies of Islam. In addition, imam al-Jassas also emphasized that Muslim scholars must not stay silent to the fallacies spread by advocates of sectarian teachings, since the scholars’ silence helps the spreading and strengthening of those fallacies, which can inflict a huge damage to Islam and Muslims. The referenced two sects that al-Jassas debated with in his tafsir are still present and active, and it is obvious that they have been disseminating their propaganda in our region as well. The paper stresses that every kind of sectarian activity in this region, in which Islam has existed on the principles of ahl al-sunna wa’l-jama‘a (the people of the sunna and congregation) for half a millennium, may cause confusion and sow disorder among its Muslims and is, therefore, unacceptable. The answers that this famous Islamic scholar offered set a good example to Muslim intellectuals and scholars for opposing the sectarian approaches in the interpretation of the Qur’ān.
