Tafsir (Arabic: تفسير, tafsīr, "interpretation") is the Arabic word for exegesis or commentary, usually of the Qur'an.
Major Tafsīrs of the Quran include:
- Muḥammad ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī (838-923 CE): Tafsīr al-Ṭabarī.
- Ibn Kathīr (1301-1373 CE): Tafsīr ibn Kathīr - A classic tafsīr, considered to be a summary of the earlier tafsīr by Ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī. It is especially popular because it uses ḥadīth to explain each verse and chapter of the Quran.
- Fakhruddīn al-Rāzī (865-925 CE): Mafātīḥ al-Ghayb ('Keys to the Unseen') also known as Al-Tafsīr al-Kabīr ('The Great Exegesis')
- Yahyā ibn Ziyād al-Farrā': Ma'ānī al-Qur'ān (The Meanings of the Quran).
- Qāḍī Abū Sa'ūd al-Ḥanafī: Irshād al 'Aql as-Salīm ilā Mazāyā al-Qur'ān al-Karīm also known as Tafsīr Abī Sa'ūd.
- Imām Abū 'Abdullāh ibn Aḥmad al-Qurṭubī (1214-1273 CE): Al-Jāmi' li-Aḥkām al-Qur'ān ('The Collection of Quranic Injunctions') by the famous Mālikī jurist of Cordoba, in Andalucia. This ten-volume tafsīr is a commentary on the Quranic verses dealing with legal issues. Although the author was a Mālikī, he also presents the legal opinions of other major schools of Islamic jurisprudence; thus it is popular with jurists from all of the schools of Islamic law. One volume of this tafsīr has been translated into English by Aisha Bewley.
* Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Tha'labī (died 427 AH / 1035 CE): Tafsīr al-Tha'labī, also known as al-Tafsīr al-Kabīr ('The Great Commentary').
* Qaḍi Abū Bakr ibn al-'Arabī: Aḥkam al-Qur'ān
* Al-Jaṣṣāṣ: Aḥkam al-Qur'ān ('The Commands of the Quran')
* Maḥmūd Ālūsī al-Ḥanafī: Tafsīr Rūḥ al-Ma'ānī fī Tafsīr al-Qur'ān al-'Azīm wa al-Saba' al-Mathānī ('The Spirit of Meanings on the Exegesis of the Sublime Quran and the Seven Oft-repeated [Verses]') - often abbreviated to Rūḥ al-Ma'ānī.
* Ismā'īl Haqqī al-Bursawī: Rūḥ al-Bayān
* Ibn 'Ajībah: Al-Baḥr al-Muḥīṭ ('The Encompassing Ocean'), generally known as Tafsīr ibn 'Ajībah
* Ma'ālim al-Tanzīl- by Ḥasan bin Mas'ūd al-Baghawī (died 510 AH/1116 CE) also known widely as Tafsīr al-Baghawī
* Abu al-Qāsim Mahmūd ibn 'Umar al-Zamakhsharī (died 1144 CE): Al-Kashshāf ('The Revealer').
* 'Abdullāh bin 'Umar al-Baiḍāwī (died 685 AH/1286 AD) - Anwār al-Tanzīl, also famous as Tafsīr al-Bayḍāwī
* Al-Muḥarrar al-wajīz fī tafsīr al-kitāb al-ʿazīz ('The Concise Record of the Exegesis of the Noble Book') - commonly known as Tafsīr ibn 'Aṭiyyah
* Zad al-Masir fi ‘Ilm al-Tafsir - Written by the great Ḥanbalī polymath Ibn al-Jawzi.
* Tafsīr an-Nasafī - Written by the great Hanafi theologian al-Nasafī and published in two volumes.
* Tafsīr Abī Ḥayyān also called Al-Baḥr al-Muḥīṭ
- "Tafsīr al-Jalālayn" ('The Commentary of the Two Jalāls') - This Arabic tafsīr was begun by Jalāluddīn al-Maḥallī (in 1459), and was subsequently completed, in the same style, by his student, the famous Shāfi'ī Sheikh Jalāluddīn al-Suyūṭī (died 911 AH/1505 CE), who completed it in 1505. Jalālayn is very popular with Muslims all over the world due to its simplicity. It has also been translated completely by Aisha Bewley.
- Al-Durr al-Manthūr fī al-Tafsīr bi-l-Ma'thūr ('The Threaded Pearl Concerning Commentary Based on Traditions'), also by Jalāluddīn al-Suyūṭī.
Modern Writers of Tafsīrs (Mufassirūn):
* Dr Syed Hamid Hasan Bilgrami: Fuyuooz ul-Qur'ān ('Benevolences of Quran') in Urdu.* 'Allāmah Ghulām Rasūl Sa'īdī:
* 'Allamah Sayyid Pīr Muhammad Karam Shāh al-Azharī: A great scholar of the last century, wrote one of most accepted Urdu commentaries, Ḍiyā' al-Qur'ān ('The Light of the Quran')[
* Allāmah Sayyid Sa'ādat 'Alī Qādarī: Elder brother of Muftī Justice Sayyid Shujā'at 'Alī Qādarī, has written an Urdu tafsīr, entitled Yā'ayyuhalladhīna Āmanū
* Muftī Muhammad Shafī': Ma'ārif-ul Qur'ān
* Bahr-ul-Uloom Muhammad Abdul Qadeer Siddiqi Qadri Hasrat: Tafseer-e-Siddiqui
- Sayyid Quṭb: Fī Zilāl al-Qur'ān ('In the Shade of the Quran') in Arabic. - Many praise it as a modern tafsīr, but at the same time, many critics including some sunni scholars say that Quṭb had little Islamic knowledge, and wrote his commentary according to his own opinion. It has also been attacked for not following the style of classical tafsīrs.
- Sayyid Abul A'lā Maudūdī: Tafhīm al-Qur'ān ('Understanding of the Quran'), a six-volume tafsir, written in Urdu. The English translation was released as Towards Understanding the Qur'an, and it was also translated into Malayalam and Kannada.
- Amīn Ahsan Islāhī: Tadabbur-i Qur'ān - written in Urdu by Indian/Pakistani scholar. Based on the idea of the nazm (thematic and structural coherence) in the Quran.[2]
* Muḥammad al-Ghazzālī, a recent Egyptian scholar who died in 2001 (not the Imām al-Ghazālī): "A Thematic Commentary on the Qur'an"
* Bediuzzaman Said Nursi began to write a tafsīr called Isharat al I'jaz (Signs of Miraculousness)
* Allāmah Sayid Muḥammad Ḥusayn al-Ṭabāṭabā'ī: Tafsīr Al-Mīzān
* Al-Habib Muhammad Ridwan Al-Jufrie wrote Tafsir Al-Jufrie Baina Tafwidh Wa Ta'wil
* Tahir ul Qadri: Irfan ul Quran - Available both in English and in Urdu, by prominent scholar Tahir ul qadri.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tafsir
