Ash'ari Theology in the Commentary

A primary purpose of Anwar at-Tanzil was to present the exegetical insights of az-Zamakhshari's Al-Kashshaf while replacing its Mu'tazili theological framework with Ash'ari doctrine. Al-Baydawi executed this substitution with skill, preserving the rhetorical and linguistic genius of Az-Zamakhshari's commentary while ensuring that its theological conclusions conformed to mainstream Ash'ari Sunni theology.

The most significant theological difference between az-Zamakhshari and al-Baydawi concerns divine attributes and the nature of the Quran. Az-Zamakhshari, following Mu'tazili doctrine, held that the Quran was created — a view the mainstream Sunni tradition regarded as a serious deviation. Al-Baydawi affirms the Ash'ari position that the Quran as an eternal divine attribute (Kalam an-Nafsi) is uncreated, while the expressed letters and sounds are created.

For the divine attribute verses, al-Baydawi consistently applies Ash'ari ta'wil, interpreting apparently anthropomorphic descriptions in ways consistent with divine transcendence. His treatment of the throne verse, the face and hand of Allah, and divine descent is compact but clear in its Ash'ari orientation, offering allegorical readings that preserve the transcendence of the divine essence while allowing the Arabic expressions to carry meaningful content.

On free will and predestination, al-Baydawi defends the Ash'ari middle position of kasb against both the Mu'tazili affirmation of human efficacy and the Jabriyya view that denies human agency entirely. His discussions of the guidance and misguidance verses — passages describing Allah's guiding of some and allowing others to go astray — interpret these within the Ash'ari framework of divine decree that creates human acts while human kasb makes those acts morally attributable.

These theological positions, stated with characteristic Baydawi concision, became the standard formulations that students across the Ottoman world memorized as the orthodox positions, making Anwar at-Tanzil as much a theological primer as a work of Quranic commentary. The fact that a tafsir work rather than a dedicated kalam text became the primary vehicle for transmitting Ash'ari theology to generations of students reflects a wisdom in the Islamic educational tradition: embedding theological formation within Quranic commentary ensured that students encountered theological questions in their proper context — as arising from the sacred text itself — rather than as abstract philosophical problems detached from divine revelation.