Microsoft Word Al Jalalain Eng with introduction docx

The Method and Strategy of 
Tafs
ī
r al-Jal
ā
layn
The 
Tafs
ī
r al-Jal
ā
layn is usually categorized as a Tafs
ī
r bil-Ma'th
ū
r — that is, a ‘commentary based 
upon transmitted knowledge’ (from the 
Ḥ
ad
ī
th, the first Tafs
ī
rs and the early Islamic history books, usually) 
— this being the primary category of perhaps six or seven traditional categories of 
Tafs
ī
r.
[1]
This, however, is 
deceptive. In fact, in addition to the material handed down from the time of the Prophet Muhammad 
(p.b.u.h.), the 
Tafs
ī
r al-Jal
ā
layn uses a number of different approaches to explaining the Qur’anic text, not 
all of which can be attributed only to transmitted Tradition or 
tafs
ī
r bil-ma'th
ū
r. These include precisely 
‘linguistic commentary’, ‘legal or 
Shari‘ah commentary’ and tafs
ī
r bil-tafs
ī
r as mentioned below (as different 
categories of commentaries). They also include, however, a few other elements, perhaps no less important. 
Thus, in addition to: (1) giving transmitted explanations and quoting 
ḥ
ad
ī
ths about Qur’anic verses, (2) 
providing Arabic synonyms for difficult Qur’anic words, (3) elaborating on legal explanations of verses 
according (mostly) to the 
Shafi‘i school of jurisprudence, and (4) putting into context, perspective and 
mutual definition verses from the Qur’an using other verses about related matters (i.e. practicing 
tafs
ī
r bil-
tafs
ī
r), the Tafs
ī
r al-Jal
ā
layn uses the following Commentary strategies:
(5) It gives the 
Asb
ā
b al-Nuz
ū
l (the ‘occasions for Revelation’, that is, what was happening to and 
around the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) when a verse or verses were Revealed (ostensibly in answer to these 
circumstances) for selected verses when they are known (this of course is a purely 
Ma'th
ū
r element of 
Commentary).
(6) It indicates which verses are abrogated (
mans
ū
kh) and which verses abrogate (n
ā
sikh), (this 
should be a purely 
ma'th
ū
r element, but is arguably not always so).
(7) It notes the seven (or ten) different ‘readings’ (
qir
ā
’
ā
t) of the Holy Qur’an and briefly discusses 
their divergent emphases.
(8) It discusses the grammar of the Qur’an according to that of the Arabic language, and explains 
the arcane grammatical forms occasionally to be found in the Qur’an.
(9) It clarifies many Arabic and Qur’anic linguistic tropes by filling in deliberate omissions and 
ellipses strategically employed in the Qur’an, and by suggesting meanings for synecdoche, metonymy, 
metaphor and allusion used in Arabic.
(10) Finally, it fills in, based largely on the Bible and its Rabbinical and Patristic Commentaries 
gleaned mostly from early Christian and Jewish converts to Islam (and therefore containing some confused, 
polemical and apocryphal material), the historical order, details and context of many of the stories in the 

---

iii
Qur’an concerning the Biblical Prophets and Jesus (p.b.u.h.) and his family and disciples. This element is 
known in Arabic as 
Isr
ā
’
ī
liyy
ā
t (‘Tales of the Children of Israel’) and is generally thought of as not only the 
most controversial part of 
Tafs
ī
r al-Jal
ā
layn, but of Tafs
ī
r in general, because of the tenuousness of some of 
the material involved. However, it is extremely useful for understanding the background — and therefore 
also the meaning (symbolic or otherwise) — of many of the tales of the Qur’an, such that few if any Classical 
Commentaries have ever able been able to ignore it.
Reading the 
Tafs
ī
r al-Jal
ā
layn, one immediately understands that, despite the number of elements 
and strategies that its authors employ (as just listed), its primary and overriding goal — one might say its 
‘categorical imperative’ — is only to clarify the immediate sense of the Qur’anic text, thereby facilitating the 
reading of the Qur’an. There are no digressions, no distractions, no embellishments, nothing superfluous, 
and nothing whose sole purpose is not to elucidate an ambiguity in the text of the Qur’an or to explain 
something that is not self-evident.
[2]
Moreover, the commentary itself is made to fit in between the verses or 
phrases or words of the Qur’an without interrupting its sense as read, thereby generally forming one 
continuous, uninterrupted flow of holy text and commentary. It is thus as if the two Jal
ā
ls wanted to remove 
any obstacles to understanding any word or sense in the holy text so that even the simplest reader might 
recite the Qur’an and immediately understand at least its literal meaning. In this sense the 
Tafs
ī
r al-Jal
ā
layn 
is what the word ‘
Tafs
ī
r’ literally means — an ‘explanation’ — and not what the word has come to mean by 
extension (namely: ‘commentary’ or ‘interpretation’). This is doubtless what makes the 
Tafs
ī
r al-Jal
ā
layn 
invaluable as an introductory classical 
tafs
ī
r, and is the secret of its timeless popularity.