This paper reexamines Mawlana Rashīd Aḥmad Gangohī’s contribution to Tafsir by arguing that the absence of a formal tafsir does not indicate the absence of a coherent exegetical method. Through a qualitative textual analysis of selections of Fatāwā Rashīdiyya and related writings, the study reconstructs his Quranic hermeneutic from his juridical, pedagogical, and spiritual corpus and situates it within the Walīullāhī intellectual tradition. The findings introduce the concept of embedded exegesis to describe a mode of Quranic interpretation distributed across fatāwā, teaching, ethical formation, and spiritual guidance rather than confined to a continuous commentary. This integrative hermeneutic preserved normative orthodoxy while enabling engagement with the epistemic, moral, and social challenges of colonial modernity. Although limited to the textual analysis of a single scholarly corpus, the study suggests the value of extending this framework through comparative work across other Islamic intellectual traditions. By foregrounding interpretive practices beyond formal commentaries, the paper expands the methodological boundaries of Tafsir studies and contributes to broader discussions in Islamic intellectual history and knowledge organization. It further reconceptualizes interpretive authority as emerging through the interaction of texts, institutions, pedagogy, and lived scholarly practice.
