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Acknowledgements
 
It was by a propitious twist of fate that I came to be associated with the Great 
Tafs
ī
r Project 
undertaken by the Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought in Amman, Jordan. I am honoured to have been 
invited to participate in such a ground-breaking undertaking, and for this I should like to thank HRH Prince 
Ghazi bin Muhammad. I hope that his earnest enthusiasm for and deep appreciation of the subject of Muslim 
tafs
ī
r will have been, even if in some small measure, vindicated by the translation offered here. 
Dr Reza Shah-Kazemi deserves special mention, not least for his unfailing support throughout the 
duration of this work. His comments and suggestions on an earlier draft spotted certain infelicities and 
greatly enhanced the overall form of the translation. I should also like to thank my colleague Dr Yousef Meri, 
whose meticulous reading of the final draft and professionalism ensured that the final version was that much 
better. It goes without saying, however, that the responsibility for any shortcomings in the work is entirely 
mine. 
Finally, I owe a debt of gratitude to my wife, Rula, for assisting me in very practical, but ultimately 
crucial, ways from the start, and for her encouragement and devoted patience throughout this project, all of 
which kindnesses were offered with characteristic generosity. 

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xvii
[1]
The other categories of 
Tafs
ī
r
can be thought of as follows: (b) 
tafs
ī
r bil-ra'y
— ‘Commentary based upon personal 
opinion (e.g. Fakhr al-D
ī
n al-R
ā
z
ī
’s great 
Maf
ā
t
īḥ
al-Ghayb
); (c) 
tafs
ī
r lughaw
ī
— ‘Linguistic Commentary’ (e.g. 
Zamakhshar
ī
’s 
Kashsh
ā
f 
or Bay
ḍā
w
ī
’s 
Anw
ā
r al-Tanz
ī
l wa Asr
ā
r al-Ta'w
ī
l
); (d) 
tafs
ī
r fiqh
ī
— ‘commentary focusing on 
Shari‘ah
law’ (e.g. Qur
ṭ
ub
ī
’s 
al-J
ā
mi' li-A
ḥ
k
ā
m al-Qur'
ā
n
); (e) 
tafs
ī
r bil-tafs
ī
r
— ‘Commentary wherein Qur’anic verses are 
juxtaposed and used to explain each other’; (f) 
tafs
ī
r ish
ā
r
ī
or
tafs
ī
r 
ṣū
f
ī
or 
ta'w
ī
l
— ‘esoteric’ or ‘mystic commentary’; 
and (g) (in modern times only) 
tafs
ī
r 'ilm
ī
— ‘scientific commentary’, i.e. wherein the author uses modern science to 
explain verses in the Qur’an (especially the ones relating cosmological and biological themes) and 
vice versa
(e.g. the 
Tafs
ī
r
of Tan
ṭā
w
ī
Jawhar
ī
).
[2]
Jal
ā
l al-D
ī
n Suy
ūṭī
’s later 
Tafs
ī
r
, the voluminous 
al-Durr al-Manth
ū
r fil-Tafs
ī
r al-Ma'th
ū
r
, proves not only that he 
intended precisely to write a short, ‘introductory’ 
Tafs
ī
r
, but also that he was quite capable of writing a longer, more 
complex one.
[3]
This 
Ḥ
ad
ī
th
is found in 
Sunan
al-Tirmidh
ī
(# 2950 and 2951), 
Musnad
Ibn 
Ḥ
anbal (I; 233; 269; 327) and many other 
collections of 
Ḥ
ad
ī
th
(including the 
Sunan
of Ab
ū
D
ā
w
ū
d) and is traced to Ab
ū
Sufy
ā
n al-Thawr
ī
. It is even found in 
Ṭ
abar
ī
’s seminal 
J
ā
mi' al-Bay
ā
n f
ī
Tafs
ī
r al-Qur'
ā
n
. 
[4]
The meaning of this part of the verse is ambiguous in Arabic: depending on where the reading pauses, ‘those firmly 
grounded in knowledge’ may or may not be included in the exception to ‘none knows its interpretation’. We have thus 
added the word ‘who’ in brackets to convey this sense. However, the issue is resolved definitively (in favour of ‘those 
firmly grounded in knowledge’ knowing interpretation) by the next verses quoted above, according to the universally 
agreed upon cardinal principle attributed to Im
ā
m 'Al
ī
(
Nahj al-Bal
ā
gha
, discourse #133) that ‘the parts of the Qur’an 
explain each other’ (
Inna
al-Qur’
ā
n yufassir ba'
ḍ
uhu ba'
ḍ
an
) and quoted by Ibn Kath
ī
r in his 
Tafs
ī
r
(of 
S
ū
rat al-Mu'min
ū
n
23:50).
[5]
Mu
ḥ
ammad Ab
ū
Ḥā
mid al-Ghaz
ā
l
ī
, 
I
ḥ
y
ā
' 'Ul
ū
m al-D
ī
n
, Volume 8, 
Kit
ā
b Adab Til
ā
wat al-Qur'
ā
n
; Part IV (trans. 
Muhammad Abul Quasem as 
The Recitation and Interpretation of the Qur’an
: Al-Ghaz
ā
l
ī
’s Theory, London: Kegan Paul 
International, 1984, p.92). 
[6]
Ibid
. p.94.
[7]
Ibid
. p.101.
[8]
Mu
ḥ
ammad Ab
ū
Ḥā
mid al-Ghaz
ā
l
ī
, 
I
ḥ
y
ā
' 'Ul
ū
m al-D
ī
n
, Volume 8, 
Kit
ā
b Adab Til
ā
wat al-Qur'
ā
n
; Part III (trans. 
Muhammad Abul Quasem as 
The Recitation and Interpretation of the Qur’an
: Al-Ghaz
ā
l
ī
’s Theory, p.60). The 
ḥ
ad
ī
th
itself is to be found in 
Ṣ
a
ḥīḥ
al-Bukh
ā
r
ī
, 
al-Diy
ā
t
, 24,31; 
Musnad
Ibn 
Ḥ
anbal, I, 79; and 
Sunan
al-Nas
ā
'
ī
, 
Qasama
, 13.
[9]
From Mu
ḥ
y
ī
al-D
ī
n Ibn al-'Arab
ī
’s 
al-Fut
ūḥā
t al-Makkiyya
(quoted from William C. Chittick, 
The Sufi Path of
Knowledge
, Albany, State University of New York Press, 1989, p. 244).
[10]
Baghaw
ī
, 
Shar
ḥ
al-Sunna, Kit
ā
b al-‘Ilm, B
ā
b al-Khu
ṣū
ma fil-Qur’
ā
n
; also to be found in: 
Sa
ḥ
i
ḥ
Ab
ū
Ḥ
ayy
ā
n, # 74; 
Musnad
Ab
ū
Ya'l
ā
, # 5403; 
Ṭ
ah
ā
w
ī
, 
Shar
ḥ
Mushkil al-Athar
, 172:4; Bazz
ā
r, 
Kashf al-Ast
ā
r
, 90:3; Ibn 
Ḥ
ajar al-Haytham
ī
, 
Majma' al-Zaw
ā
'id
, 152:7, 
et al.
A different reading of this 
Hadith
with a slightly different interpretation is given by the 
Caliph 'Al
ī
(k.w.): 
Every verse in the Qur’an has four senses: an outer, an inner, a limit, and a place of ascent. So the 
outer is the recitation, the inner is understanding, the limit is the injunctions of what is permitted and proscribed, and 
the place of ascent is what God desires from his servant by means of that verse
.
[11]
Symbolism seems to us to be quite specially adapted to the needs of human nature, which is not exclusively 
intellectual but which needs a sensory basis from which to rise to higher levels.… Fundamentally, every expression, 
every formulation, whatever it may be, is a symbol of the thought which it expresses outwardly. In this sense, language 
itself is nothing other than symbolism. (René Guénon, 
Fundamental Symbols: The Universal Language of Sacred Science
, 
trans. Alvin Moore, (Cambridge: Quinta Essentia, 1995), p. 13.
Thus the Holy Qur’an says:
 
Seest thou not how God coineth a similitude: A goodly word, [is] as a goodly tree, its roots set firm, its 
branches reaching into heaven, / Giving its fruit at every season by permission of its Lord? God coineth the 
similitudes for mankind in order that they may reflect.
(The Holy Qur’an, 
Ibr
ā
h
ī
m
, 14:24-25) 
 
[12]
Man was created from God’s Spirit and in His image: 
Then He fashioned him [man] and breathed into him of His spirit; and appointed for you hearing and sight and 
hearts. Small thanks give ye!
(The Holy Qur’an, 
al-Sajda
, 32:9)
Verily God created Adam in His own image
. (
Musnad 
Ibn 
Ḥ
anbal, 2: 244, 251, 315. 323 etc.; 
Sa
ḥīḥ
al-Bukh
ā
r
ī
, 
Kitab al-Isti'dh
ā
n
, 1; 
Ṣ
a
ḥīḥ
Muslim
, 
Kit
ā
b
al
-
Birr,
115, 
et al
.)
Likewise, the world was also created in God’s image:
And of His portents is this: The heavens and the earth stand fast by His command…. / Unto Him belongeth 
whosoever is in the heavens and the earth…. / He it is who produceth creation, then reproduceth it…. His is the 
Sublime Exemplar in the heavens and in the earth. He is the Mighty, the Wise.
(The Holy Qur’an, 
al-R
ū
m
, 
30:25-27)

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xviii
Thus it necessarily follows that man and the world being both made in the image of God, are also images of each 
other (a ‘microcosm’ and ‘macrocosm’, in the image of the ‘Metacosm’):
We shall show them Our Portents on the horizons and within themselves until it will be manifest unto them that 
it is the Truth.
(The Holy Qur’an, 
Fu
ṣṣ
ilat
, 41:53)
The Holy Qur’an too, being the Word of God, necessarily reflects not only the Truth, but the Whole Truth:
With truth We have revealed it and with truth it hath descended.
… (The Holy Qur’an, 
al-Isr
ā
'
, 17:105)
…. 
We have neglected nothing in the Book
…. (The Holy Qur’an, 
al-An‘
ā
m
, 6:38)
And verily We have coined for mankind in this Qur’an of every kind of similitude, that perhaps they may reflect
. 
(The Holy Qur’an, 
al-Zumar
, 39:27)
Thus stories in the Qur’an about events occurring in the world can be taken in an inward or ‘microcosmic’ sense, 
because they inherently reflect humans in themselves:
[T]he content [of the Holy Qur’an] concerns ourselves in a concrete and direct way, since the disbelievers (the 
k
ā
fir
ū
n
), and the associaters of false divinities with God (the 
mushrik
ū
n
) and the hypocrites (the 
mun
ā
fiq
ū
n
) 
are within ourselves; likewise that the Prophets represent our Intellect and our consciousness, that all the tales 
in the Qur’an are enacted almost daily in our souls, that Mecca is the Heart and that the tithe, the fast, the 
pilgrimage and the holy war are so many contemplative attitudes. (F. Schuon, 
Understanding Islam
, 
Bloomington: World Wisdom Books, 1994, p.51.)
[13]
Ab
ū
Ja'far Mu
ḥ
ammad b. Jar
ī
r al-
Ṭ
abar
ī
, 
J
ā
mi' al-Bay
ā
n f
ī
Tafs
ī
r al-Qur'
ā
n
, (Beirut: 
D
ā
r al-Kutub al-'Ilmiyya
, 1992) 
Volume VII, 
Tafs
ī
r
on 
S
ū
rat al-Ra‘d
, v.17, p. 370, # 20310.
[14]
Ṣ
a
ḥīḥ
al-Bukh
ā
r
ī
, 
al-Diy
ā
t
, 24,31; 
Musnad
Ibn 
Ḥ
anbal, I, 79; and 
Suna
n Al-Nas
ā
'
ī
, 
Qasama
, 13.
[15]
This treatise has in fact been translated into English under the title 
Three Early Sufi Texts
(Louisville: Fons Vitae, 
2003).
[16]
The modern 
Tafs
ī
r
s of the likes of Mawd
ū
d
ī
, Syed Qu
ṭ
b and Mu
ḥ
ammad Ghaz
ā
l
ī
have appeared in English; Abu 
Ḥā
mid al-Ghaz
ā
l
ī
’s Classical Commentary of the (single) Verse of Light 
Mishk
ā
t al-Anw
ā
r 
has appeared in several English 
translations; the late Yahya Cooper started an excellent translation of 
Ṭ
abar
ī
’s 
J
ā
mi' al-Bay
ā
n
before his untimely death; 
in 2003 the first volume (up to the end of 
S
ū
rat al-Baqara
) of Qur
ṭ
ub
ī
’s 
al-J
ā
mi' li-A
ḥ
k
ā
m al-Qur'
ā
n
, translated by Aisha 
Bewley was published; two abridged translations of Ibn Kath
ī
r’s 
Tafs
ī
r
(one by Saifur-Rahman Al-Mubarakpuri [2000], 
the other by Mu
ḥ
ammad Na
ṣī
b Ar-Rif
ā
'
ī
[1996] (the first complete, and the second, only one-third complete to date) 
have been published with the excellent feature of containing the Arabic text Holy Qur’an for comparison; and there have 
been many excellent selections or amalgamations of 
Tafs
ī
r
with or without translations of the Qur’an itself — some 
completed, some still incomplete — produced in English in various parts of the Islamic world (mainly in the Indian 
Subcontinent and in the various parts of Arabia, e.g. As'ad Homid’s 
Aysar al-Taf
ā
s
ī
r
) and in the West (e.g. Mahmoud 
Ayoub’s 
The Qur’an and its Interpreters
; The Nawawi Foundation’s 
The Majestic Qur’an
; Muhammad Asad’s 
The Message 
of the Qur’an
; Y
ū
suf ‘Al
ī
’s 
Translation and Commentary on The Holy Qur’an
, and so on). However, to date (2007) no 
complete translation of a Classical 
Tafs
ī
r
has ever been published in the English language. 
[17]
This project obviously required a very large sum of money to realize; the money was all provided by a single non-
Jordanian, Muslim patron, who requested in return two things: that he remain anonymous, and that the text of the 
Tafs
ī
r
s be presented as they are with no editing or interference on our behalf. We have kept the second condition with 
pleasure and the first with regret, but ask readers to pray that God reward this generous benefactor.
[18]
Cf. 
The Commentary on the Qur'
ā
n by Ab
ū
Ja'far Mu
ḥ
ammad b. Jar
ī
r al-
Ṭ
abar
ī
: being an abridged translation of J
ā
mi' 
al-Bay
ā
n 'an ta'w
ī
l 
ā
y al-Qur'
ā
n
, with intro. and notes by J. Cooper, general editors W. F. Madelung and A. Jones 
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987), xxv-xxvii.
[19]
See end of section Q. 17:111 below, where al-Suy
ūṭī
concludes his section of the commentary; on Ma
ḥ
all
ī
in general, 
see Charles Pellat, ‘al-Ma
ḥ
all
ī
’, 
EI2
, V, 1223.
[20]
Hundreds of works are attributed by biographers to al-Suy
ūṭī
; the principal ones may be gleaned from the following 
list: 
Ḥ
usn al-Mu
ḥāḍ
ara, 
Cairo: B
ū
l
ā
q, 1299 AH, I, 252; Najm al-D
ī
n al-Ghazz
ī
, 
al-Kaw
ā
kib al-s
ā
'ira f
ī
a'y
ā
n al-mi'a al-
'
ā
shira
,
Beirut: American University of Beirut Press, 1949, I, 226; Ibn Iy
ā
s, 
Bad
ā
'i' al-Zuh
ū
r
,
Cairo: B
ū
l
ā
q, 1896, IV, 83. 
Cf. Eric Geoffroy, ‘al-Suy
ūṭī
’, 
EI2
, IX, 913-16; E. M. Sartain, 
Jal
ā
l al-D
ī
n al-Suy
ūṭī
, Cambridge: CUP, 1975; M. 'A. Sharaf, 
Jal
ā
l al-D
ī
n al-Suy
ūṭī
: manhajuhu wa-
ā
r
ā
'uhu al-kal
ā
miyya
, Beirut: D
ā
r al-Nah
ḍ
a al-'Arabiyya, 1981.
[21]
The standard reference work to al-Suy
ūṭī
is E. M. Sartain, 
Jal
ā
l al-D
ī
n al-Suy
ūṭī
: Biography and Background
, 
Cambridge: University of Cambridge Oriental Publications no. 23, 1975; see also M. J. Saleh, “Al-Suy
ūṭī
and His works: 
Their Place in Islamic Scholarship from Mamluk Times to the Present”, 
Maml
ū
k Studies Review
V (2001), 73-89; 
specifically on the 
Tafs
ī
r al-Jal
ā
layn
, see Sulaiman Musa, “The Influence of 
Tafs
ī
r al-Jal
ā
layn
on Some Notable Nigerian 
Mufassir
ū
n
in Twentieth-Century Nigeria”, 
Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs
XX.ii (2000), 323-328; Hartmut Bobzin, 
“Notes on the Importance of Variant Readings and Grammar in the 
Tafs
ī
r al-
Ğ
al
ā
layn
”, 
Zeitschrift für Arabische Linguistik
XV (1985), 33-44; “Ignaz Goldziher on al-Suy
ūṭī
: a translation of his article of 1871, with additional notes”, trans. M. 
Barry, 
The Muslim World
LXVII.ii (1978), 79-99.

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