AUTHORITATIVE TAFSEERS OF THE HOLY QUR'AN
In PART 1 of my pages headed ORGANIZED CRIME RESEARCH MELBOURNE I make mention of Shaykh Mufti Muhammad Shafi's commentary on the renowned Tafsir At-Tabari.
The Shaykh's commentary appears below. The introduction headed 'Famous Commentaries of the Qur'an' begins on page 45 of Volume 1 of the English translation of Ma'ariful Qur'an, seventh edition 2009, but his remarks about Tafsir At-Tabari commence on page 46.
Aside from some changes to the paragraphing and punctuation no changes have been made to the text, except in one instance I have added the word 'than' but printed it in red. A brief biography of Shaykh Mufti Muhammad Shafi appears in Wikipedia. The link is MUHAMMAD SHAFI WIKIPEDIA .
Famous Commentaries of the Qur'an by
Shaykh Mufti Muhammad Shafi
(rahmatullah alayhi – may the mercy of Allah be upon him)
"Countless commentaries of the Glorious Qur'an have been written
since the blessed period of the Prophethood. In fact, no other book of
the world has been served as much as the noble Qur'an.
"Introducing
all these commentaries is not possible even in some detailed book,
much less in a brief introduction such as this. But, what we wish to do
here is to introduce very briefly the major commentaries that have
served as particular sources of Ma'ariful Qur'an and which have been
cited there time and again.
"Although, during the period the above
commentary was being written, many commentaries and hundreds of
books were constantly referred to, but here, the purpose is to limit the
introduction to commentaries the references to which will appear repeatedly.
"Tafsir ibn Jarir
"The real name of this Tafsir is Jami' al-Bayan and it was compiled
by 'Allamah Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari (died 310
Hijrah).
"Allamah Tabari is a highly rated commentator, muhaddith
(hadith expert) and historian. It is said that he kept writing for forty
years continuously and used to write forty pages every day (al-Bidayah wa
al- Nihayah, v 11, p 145).
"There are charges of being Shi'ah against him, but
researchers have refuted this charge and the truth of the matter is
that he is a highly regarded scholar of the followers of the Sunnah,' "rather [than] one of the Shi'ite scholars.
"Being in thirty volumes, his Tafsir enjoys the status of a basic
source for later commentaries. In his explanation of the verses, he
quotes different scholars and then goes on to prove the position which,
according to him, is weightier, of course, with arguments and proofs.
"It
must, however, be admitted that narrations of all sorts, sound and
weak, have found a place in his commentary. Because of this, not
every narration presented by him can be relied upon. In reality, he
was aiming through his commentary to collect and compile all
narrations that could become available to him, so that this collected
material could be put to use later on.
"Conceded is the fact that he has
given the chain of reporters along with each narration so that whoever
wishes to investigate into the chain of narrators could do so and decide
for himself if the narrations are true or false."
NEW TEXT
Tiifsir ibn ~athir , , Hhfiz 'Irnsd al-dTn AbG al-Fidii' 1sm5'il ibn ~athir al-~imash~i al-Shafi'i (died 774 Hijrah), a distinguished research scholar of the eighth century, is the author of this commentary. It has been published in four volumes. Here emphasis has been laid on explanatory narrations. A special feature is his criticism as badith expert on different narrations, and from this point of view, this book holds a distinct place among all books of Tafsr. Tafsjr Al-~urtubi Its full name is ~l-~ami ' li-Ahkam al-Qur'an. It was written by the famous learned writer and research scholar of Andalusia (Spain), AbG 'Abdullah Mubarnmad ibn Ahmad Abi Bakr ibn Farah al-~urtub: ~ntroduction (died 671 Hijrah). He was a follower of the ~aliki 47 school of fiqh and was known all over for his 'ibadah and piety. The fact is that the basic objective of this book was to deduce juristic injunctions and rulings from the Qur'an yet, while doing so, he has also provided the explanation of verses, research into difficult words, discussion of diacritical marks and elegance of style and composition, and related Traditions and Reports in his Tafsir, and quite ably so. This book is in twelve volumes and has been published repeatedly. ~l-~af sir al-gab& This is the work of Imam Fakhr al-din al-Razi (died 606 Hijrah). Its real name is Mafatih al-Ghayb, but is popularly known as '~af&r Kabir'. Imam RGZ; is an imam of the theology of Islam, therefore, great emphasis has been laid in his ~afsir on rational and scholastic debates and on the refutation of false sects. But, the truth is that this ~afsir is, in its own way, a unique key to the Qur'an as well. Furthermore, the pleasing way in which the meanings of the Qur'an have been clarified and the mutual link of the Qur'anic verses established, is all too praise-worthy. Most likely, Imam RSZ~ himself wrote down his Tafsir as far as Surah al-Fath. Onwards from there, he cohld not complete. So, the remaining part of the Tafsir, from SGrah al-Fath to the end, was completed by ~ad i Shihab al-Din ibn ~halil al-~hawli al-~imash$ (died 639 - Hijrah) or Shaykh Najm al-~jn Ahmad ibn Mubarnmad al-Qamuli (died 777 Hijrah). (Kashaf al-zunun v 2, p 477) Imam ~a z i has particularly emphasised scholastic debates and the refutation of false sects in accordance with the dictates of his time, and while doing so, his discussions have become too lengthy at several places, therefore, some people have made the following comment on his Tafsir: 41 YI ;1; 3 +i : 'There is everything in this (book) except the Tafsir.' But this comment is a terrible injustice to ~afsir ~abir. That which is the truth has already been stated above, namely, that this ~afs~r enjoys a high rating as far as the resolution of the meanings of the Qur'an is concerned. But, there are places where he has explained verses of the Qur'gn while moving away from the consensus of the ummah, however, such places are very thinly spread out in this book that goes on to eight volumes. Introduction ~afsir al-Bahr al-~uut 48 This was written by 'Allamah AbG Hayy5n al-~harn5G al-~ndalusi (died 754 Hijrah) who was a master of syntax and rhetoric in addition to other Islamic fields of learning. As a result of this, his own Tafsr is soaked in syntax and rhetoric. He places special stress on investigating into the words of every verse, the difference in structures and on points of eloquence. AE;lk&m al-Qur'an by al-Jassas This was written by Imam Abii Bakr al-Jassgs .. . al-R~Z; (died 370 Hijrah) who dccupies a distinguished place among Hanafi jurists. The deduction of juristic injunctions and rulings from the noble Qur'an is the subject of this book. Instead of explaining verses in serial continuity, he has taken up the juristic details as called for by verses which consist of juristic injunctions. Several other books have also been written on this subject, but this book enjoys a prominent place among those. Tafsir al-Durr al-Manthur This was written by 'Allamah JalZl al- in al-SuyTiti (died 910 Hijrah). Its full name is 'al-Durr al-Manthur fi al-~afGr bi I'Ma'thur.' Here 'Allamah al-Suyuti has tried to collect all narrations about the tafsir of Qur7Zn he was able to find. Several bad$h scholars such as Hafiz ibn ~arir, Imam Baghawi, Ibn Marduwayh, Ibn Hibbsn and Ibn Msjah and others had already worked in this area on their own. 'Allamah al-Suy;ti has assembled narrations presented by all of them in this book. But, rather than refer to complete chain of authorities along with narrations, he has found it sufficient to simply name the particular author who has presented that narration under his authority so that, if needed, one could go back to the work and investigate into the ultimate authority. Since his purpose was to put together a mass of narrations, as a result of which, all sorts of narrations, sound and weak, have found their way into his book. Hence, every narration allowed entry by him cannot be considered reliable without investigation into its authority. There are occasions when 'Allamah al-Suyiiti does indicate with each narration the degree of its authority as well. But, as he is known to be fairly easy-going in respect of hadsh critique, it is still difficult to fully rely on that too. Introduction ~l-~af& al-~a~hari + This was written by Qadi Thanhullah ~an i~as He has named this Tafsir as '~1-~afsir 49 (died 1225 Hijrah). al-~a~har;' after the name - of his spritual master, Mirza Mazhar Jan-e-Janan ~ehlavy. This Tafsir of his is .cry simple and clear, and extremely useful to locate brief explanations of Qur'anic verses. Along with the elucidation of Qur'anic words, he has also taken up related narrations in ample details, and in doing so, he has made an effort to accept narrations after much more scrutiny as compared with other commentaries.