Tafsir
Tafsir (Arabic: تفسير, romanized: tafsīr [tafˈsiːr]; English: explanation) refers to an exegesis, or commentary, of the Quran.
A Quranic tafsir attempts to provide elucidation, explanation, interpretation, context or commentary for clear understanding and conviction of God's will in Islam.
[2] In Islamic contexts, it is defined as understanding and uncovering God's will which has been conveyed by the Quranic text, by means of the Arabic language and one's own knowledge.
Considering that around 96% of the Arabic-language manuscripts remain unstudied, Ross argues that "by extrapolation there may be thousands of additional commentaries still waiting to be discovered.
[5] Elements of Muhammad's explanations including clarifying verses whose intents are not understood, the indication of names, places, times etc.
[1] By the time of the next generations ensuing the sahabah, scholars in the age of the successors (tabi'in) started using a wide range of sources for tafsir.
[24] Some important examples of tafsir bi'r-riwāyah are Jāmiʿ al-Bayān by al-Tabari and Tafseer al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓeem by ibn Kathir.
The sources used for tafsir bi'r-riwāyah can be ordered by the rank of authority, as the Quran, hadiths, the reports by the sahabah and tabi'iun, classical Arabic literature, and Isra'iliyat.
One example of the hadith which extensively employs this source of method is Al-Mizan fi Tafsir al-Qur'an by Muhammad Husayn Tabataba'i.
In this approach the most important external aids used are the collected oral traditions upon which Muslim scholars based Islamic history and law.
These are generally considered above personal opinion, because these people grew up with everyday interaction with Muhammad, and had often asked about the meanings of verses or circumstances of their revelation; and they were very knowledgeable in both Arabic literature and Islamic thought.
Scholars starting with the Sahabah have studied narrative accounts of other Abrahamic religions to further explain and clarify verses, especially parables, in the Quran.
Due to the nature of orientation toward opinions, this method is rejected by certain scholars such as Ibn Taymiyyah,[1] and prohibited by Wahhabi Islamic doctrine.
[citation needed] Some important examples of such tafsirs include Anwar al-Tanzil by al-Baydawi and Mafatih al-Ghayb by Fakhr al-Din al-Razi.
Some parameters used by these scholars including linguistic resources, historical sources, methodological concepts such as maqasid or socio-cultural environment taken into consideration.
In terms of linguistic resources, literary elements of the Arabic language, including morphology, eloquence, syntax are an integral part of tafsir, as they constitute the basis of understanding and interpretation.
Historical context (Asbab al-nuzul) is particularly important to interpret verses according to how the Quran was revealed, when and under which circumstances, and much commentary was dedicated to history.
That way, any interpretation that threatens to compromise the preservation of religion, life, lineage, intellect or property may be discarded or ruled otherwise in order to secure these goals.
This includes understanding and interpreting the Quran while taking into account the cultural and social environment to which it has been revealed; or according to the scholars' own time.
[31] This work provides exegetical material for the whole Quran, also contains conflicting information, which Tabari tries either to harmonize or argues in support of the one he feels more correct.
[40][39] Kadizadeli (Qādīzādali), a seventeenth-century puritanical reformist religious movement in the Ottoman Empire, shared a lot of ideas with modern Islamic interpretations.
[39] A rationalistic approach, as proposed by Syed Ahmad Khan and Muhammad Abduh attempts to prove that the Quran and modern sciences do not contradict each other.
[citation needed] Among the most significant Sunni Sufi tafsirs are: Quranists merely believe in the Qur'an and reject other oral traditions.
[53] Starting in the 1970s and 80s, the idea of presence of scientific evidence in the Quran became popularized as ijaz (miracle) literature, also called "Bucailleism", and began to be distributed through Muslim bookstores and websites.
According to author Ziauddin Sardar, the ijaz movement has created a "global craze in Muslim societies", and has developed into an industry that is "widespread and well-funded".
[56][57][58] Individuals connected with the movement include Abdul Majeed al-Zindani, who established the Commission on Scientific Signs in the Quran and Sunnah; Zakir Naik, the Indian televangelist; and Adnan Oktar, the Turkish creationist.
[56] Enthusiasts of the movement argue that among the miracles found in the Quran are "everything, from relativity, quantum mechanics, Big Bang theory, black holes and pulsars, genetics, embryology, modern geology, thermodynamics, even the laser and hydrogen fuel cells".
[59] In 1983, Keith L. Moore, had a special edition published of his widely used textbook on Embryology (The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology), co-authored by Abdul Majeed al-Zindani with Islamic Additions,[60] interspersed pages of "embryology-related Quranic verse and hadith" by al-Zindani into Moore's original work.
[61][63] Critics argue, verses that proponents say explain modern scientific facts, about subjects such as biology, the origin and history of the Earth, and the evolution of human life, contain fallacies and are unscientific.
While Christianity is less prone to see its Holy Book as the direct word of God, fewer Muslims will compromise on this idea – causing them to believe that scientific truths must appear in the Quran.
