Introduction to At-Tafsir Al Wadih

Introduction

All praise is due to Allah Who revealed the Qur'an. And peace and blessings be upon the Prophet who was characterized by the morals that were mentioned in the Qur'an, upon his family, his Companions who taught the Qur'an and upon those who follow them righteously until the Day of Recompense.

To proceed:

The Glorious Qur'an is a book of guidance, rulings, behavior, `Aqidah (faith), admonish, stories, recommendations, lessons, good news and warnings. Allah has sent it down to be the seal of the divine Scriptures, a reference to the people, and a constitution for them in their affairs as long as they live. Despite the greatness of the Qur'an, its majesty and its perfect rulings, people have turned away from it except a few of people. The attacks directed against the Qur'an were powerful and well-schemed by the enemies of Islam in order to distort the Muslims' source of power; which could almost happen. We ask Allah to gather us under the banner of truth, make us superior through our religion and give us victory over the disbelievers in order that the Qur'an would be the reference of rulings and the source of knowledge from which all people extract knowledge. It is the miraculous speech of Allah which no one can innovate something of the like or even part of it. It came to us successively from narrators and reporters who could never tell lies. It was written down in sheets as well as it was preserved in the memories of people. When the Qur'an was revealed to Muhammad (peace be upon him), Allah undertook to preserve it; not as happened with the previous Scriptures which were left to humans to preserve.

Allah (Glory be to Him) says: (Verily, We, it is We Who have sent down the Dhikr (i.e. the Qur'ân) and surely, We will guard it (from corruption).) [Surat Al Hijr: 9].

There are many sciences related to the Qur'an which scholars have studied and written many books about such as: The reasons of revelation, the connections between the Ayahs, Tafsir, similarities, precise and allegorical Ayahs, Surahs that were revealed in Makkah and those of Medina, weird words, rulings, recitations, Tajwid (art of Qur'anic recitation), grammar and parsing, calligraphy, record, virtues, proprieties of recitation, examples, stories, abrogating and abrogated texts; and miraculousness with all its types. The Qur'anic exegesis is covetable and advisable.

Allah (Glory be to Him) says: ((This is) a Book (the Qur'ân) which We have sent down to you, full of blessings, that they may ponder over its Verses, and that men of understanding may remember.) [Surat Sad: 29].

Allah (He may be Glorified) says: (Do they not then consider the Qur'ân carefully?) [Surat Al Nisa': 82].

We cannot ponder over Ayahs (Qur'anic verses) but after understanding them. All these Ayahs cannot be understood except after studying Tafsir. Allah vituperated the people of the Scriptures because they had concealed knowledge and did not explain it to the people.

Allah (Glory be to Him) says: ((And remember) when Allâh took a covenant from those who were given the Scripture (Jews and Christians) to make it (the news of the coming of Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him and the religious knowledge) known and clear to mankind, and not to hide it, but they threw it away behind their backs.) [Surat Al `Imran: 87]. Therefore, we should not be like them, otherwise, our final destination will be like theirs.

Commentators of the Qur'an have adopted many ways of Tafsir. They said: Truly, the best way to explain the Qur'an is to explain the Qur'an by the Qur'an itself because its Ayahs confirm and explain one another.

The second approach is to explain it with the Sunnah which is the best explanation to the Qur'an.

The third approach is to explain it through the sayings of the Companions because they are the students of the Prophet (peace be upon him) to whom the Qur'an was revealed while he is amongst them.

The fourth approach is to explain it with the sayings of the Followers who came after the Companions because they are the most knowledgeable with the sayings of the Companions and were the best generation after them.

Some commentators have included the sciences which they master in explaining the Qur'an and the result was magnificent. In the modern time, some Tafsir books contain new interests and specialties that were not known before.

I invoked Allah to make me one of those who care for His Book by His Grace and I ask him to guide me to Him. As a result, I started to explain the Qur'an in a simple way that facilitates for the reader. So, it is a bounty and favor from Allah, for Him is all praise and gratitude.

In many of my writings, I address the Muslim laymen with ordinary speech so as not to lose them for they are the people, the voice, the power and sentiment of this nation. If everyone writes in his specialty with his own style, jargon, and complex style; they will not benefit the people and the people will not read their writings. Therefore, neglecting laymen would be catastrophic to the society and its bad consequences would be noticeable after a while. They, as we see them now, are heading to writings and informational media that fits their educational levels, so many of them run away when they say a language they cannot understand.

Thus, this book of Tafsir was written according to the approach I mentioned. I want to make it easy for ordinary readers to give the meaning and the concept for each Ayah separately and that is called the analytic method. In which a reader can understand the meaning of the Ayahs and their significance without giving details or being concise, however I gave special care for words, structures, and styles to promote the language and the culture of the reader.

I have concentrated on the expressional side which establishes the meaning and reaches to the heart and mind. In order to achieve this, I used the proper educational and preaching style.

I did not touch upon the grammatical, rhetorical, theologian aspects, many of the commentators' details, specialties or even many quotations and margins. I only mentioned the commentaries related directly to the Ayah without excluding the odd or referring to non-contextual meanings. That is enough and more useful for the ordinary reader or those who want to embrace Islam and understand the meaning of the Qur'an, its significance and the precise meanings of those Ayahs. This means: It stresses the objectives that Allah wants His Servants to fulfill throughout this noble Book. So, this book, "Al Tafsir Al Wadih" was made to benefit as much people as possible.

What is meant by the ordinary educated people is everyone who did not study the sciences of Shari`ah even if they got the highest degrees in any science and the highest certificates in any field other than the field of Shari`ah and its sciences. By this, they need to know a new branch of knowledge or to get deeper in the sciences which they had studied through the knowledge of the Glorious Qur'an.

This book is also for non-Muslims who want to know the significance of Islam as well as those who want to embrace Islam whether they know Arabic by nature or this book has been translated to him.

The most important thing is: It was made as a clear Tafsir to be understood by all classes of community, the educated and non-educated, if they want to understand the whole meaning without details. I depended on many Tafsir books to write this Tafsir, the most important were: "Tafsir Al Qur'an Al `Azhim" of Ibn Kathir which was the first Tafsir I relied on and of which I benefited a lot, "M`alim Al Tanzil" of Al Baghawy, "Rawh Al M`any Fi Tafsir Al Qur'an Al `Azhim wa As-Sab` Al Mathany" of Mahmoud Al Alusy, and "Fi Zhilal Al Qur'an" of Sayyid Qutb.

I also relied on many other Tafsir books from which I may convey some commentaries if they are in conformity with the style I adopted or being appropriate to the text. The only important thing is to convey the meaning with suitable words and structures provided that there should be no barrier to do so.

I may only mention the meaning of the Ayah or write in some length according to what is appropriate. Those who need more details may refer to the original Tafsir books.

I may select one or more commentary of Tafsir or add two similar meanings when the correct meaning is not clear to me.

I have never interpreted an Ayah but after referring to more than one Tafsir book in order to know the meaning. I do not feel comfortable about the meaning but after I know that the Ayah is completely clear to the reader. If commentators keep silent about something and did not explain it, I follow their example but that happened rarely in this book. If their views are controversial, I would mention the exact wordings of the Qur'an or something close to it out of fear to misinterpret the Ayah; this is also few.

I gave much care for the abrogating and the abrogated texts, the reasons of revelation when necessary, some of the benefits and virtues of Surahs and Ayahs and something of the scientific miraculousness of the Qur'an. I only quoted the good and authentic Hadiths as well as the authentic narrations reported from the Prophet (peace be upon him) which are few.

The commentary was quoted in the same manner of the pronouns reported in the Ayahs because it is more sincere, closer to the hearts, more effective and diversified in the Qur'an. It draws the attentions, directs away boredom and increases follow-up and excitement.

Some parts of this Tafsir were published on the world-wide web, but the most reliable is what has been published in this book.

I invoked Allah to guide and grant me success every time I write a part of this Tafsir. I used to seek refuge with Allah (He may be Glorified) against explaining it away from the intended meaning.

I supplicate Allah (may He be Exalted) to forgive my mistakes and negligence, to accept it purely for His Sake and make the people accept and love it; for He is the All-Hearing, All-Knowing.