Importance of Tafsirs

What is the Quran? without any doubt, the Holy Quran is a very precious gift for the people of this world from their Lord, As Allah says:

Verily, this favor is the Holy Quran. It is an everlasting and life-changing book that is the solution to all our problems and the key to our peace of mind.

However, it can only be truly enjoyed when we understand its message. We cannot enjoy this blessing without understanding the Quran.

The importance of the interpretation of the Noble Qur’an at the present time lies in several aspects, the most important of which are:

1. It is the word of Allah – the Glory and the Exalted -, the speech of Allah to His servants, the people of this world, including the orders and intentions it contained, and the eternal constitution of Muslims, which must be understood. To be able to act as stipulated.
2. The goal of understanding the discourse of the Holy Quran lies in acting upon it and following its teachings. Reading the Qur’an brings great reward and great merit, but the greatest fruit lies in following it which makes understanding the Quran important.
3. Among the aspects of the ummah’s need to understand the Qur’an and guide it to deal with others of their differences, warn them of what Allah has warned of, and their promises to those who violate the command of Allah with severe punishment and torment.
4. To ward off evils, to call for and support the truth, and to deal with what pleases Allah, as the Qur’an instructs people to be right, to call for the truth.
5. To meet people’s need for the interpretation of the Qur’an, to help people understand the Quran, to call the ummah through the Qur’an to the divine path, to remind them of it, to warn people against the warnings of Allah, to preach to them what is good for them, to differentiate between truth and falsehood, and to bring people out of darkness into the light. Allah said: “The book we have sent down to you so that people can come out from darkness into light, with the permission of their Lord, to the path of the dear and the praiseworthy)”, (al-Ibrahim: 1).

The Importance of the Tafsir in the Life of Muslims:

The importance of the interpretation of the Holy Quran for the lives of Muslims lies in the following:

1. Guidance for people from abnormal customs to sound belief, decent morals, acts of worship, and justice in legislation through the explanation of the verses.
2. The Qur’an also includes sound controls in building society, and therefore it is worth adhering to and carefully understanding the Qur’an and its commands, in addition to following the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ and the Companions رضي الله عنهم by working according to the commands and duties contained in it.
3. The Qur’an includes all the interests of humanity, and it has urged people to contemplate what Allah has created in the universe, which indicates the power of the Creator – glory and majesty – for the Qur’an honoured man on behalf of other beings.

The Importance of the Diversity of Methods of Interpretation:

There are many types of tafsir (interpretation of the Quran), the explanation and detail of each type are mentioned below.

Analytical Exegesis:

This type is the first in the types of interpretation, and it is the basis for the rest of the types, and it is the most common way in which most books of interpretation are classified. The task of the interpreters is to clarify the meanings of the words and structures, their rhetoric, their systems, the causes of revelation, and the sayings of the commentators on the verses as well as the specific rulings in regard to those verses.

They also pay special attention to stating the relationship between the verses and the proportionality between the surahs to help the reader understand the Quran. Some interpreters may address in detail the sayings of scholars on a grammatical, rhetorical, or juristic issue.

Aggregate or Total Exegesis:

This type of interpretation is concerned with mentioning the summary of what was mentioned in the interpretation of the verses, without mentioning the details. This type is the closest to the moral translation of the Holy Qur’an, as it is suitable for the general public and easy to understand the Quran. A good example is Tafsir Abd al-Rahman al-Saadi.

Comparative Exegesis:

The importance of comparative interpretation lies in the ability to find the faculty of interpretation that is achieved from various different sciences and knowledge, whether it be in language, grammar, or rhetoric and the related cultures in that, and studying them in order to reach what Allah Almighty wants. Then the comparison and the balance that is based on sound and scientific rules connect the interpreter to find out the reasons for the difference of the commentators, to find out their attitudes and beliefs, and the influences that had in the role of knowledge and arts that they had reached.

They searched for similarities between the interpreters, and what distinguishes each other from each other, it is meticulous in consideration and thorough in dealing with matters related to the interpretation, its topics and methods, and removing weak, fabricated, and Israeli narratives in the interpretation, as well as any sayings.

Objective Interpretation:

The importance of objective interpretation in understanding the Quran appears in several matters, including:

1. Solving contemporary problems; Due to the foundations laid by the Qur’an.
2. Explaining the greatness of the Qur’an, explaining its principles, and the topics it contains, as the Qur’an offers the people of its era a scientific advance. The Qur’an is valid for every time and place, so its topics are realistic and not specific to matters without others.
3. The agreement of objective interpretation with the important objectives laid down by the Qur’an, and the fulfillment of those objectives in the life of Muslims.
4. Responding to the command of God – Glory and Exalted – to ponder and understand the Quran and its meanings, and the jurisprudential matters it contains.
5. Explaining new aspects of the miracles in the Qur’an and correcting the course of Qur’anic studies. Such as scientific miracles, the fundamentals of Islamic education, the fundamentals of Islamic economics, and the fundamentals of Islamic media, and that is by setting scientific discipline rules from the Holy Qur’an and avoiding excess or neglect.
6. Highlighting new faces of the Qur’anic miracles, as the researcher in objective interpretation appears for him new faces of miracles.

Since Allah Almighty revealed the Noble Qur’an to His last Messenger Muhammad ﷺ, the matter has not been clear to many people. So, the jurists and scholars have worked hard in interpreting the Holy Qur’an in a manner that is consistent with the position in which Allah Almighty revealed that verse in order not to make mistakes in the interpretation.

The aim is to help people to learn and understand the Quran and to memorize it with full understanding and awareness. Today there are many tafsir books pertaining to the great scholars and commentators who have strived to explain everything mentioned in the Holy Qur’an.

The concept of exegesis is clarified based on language and convention. As for the concept of exegesis in language, it comes from the word “al-fasr”, which means disclosure of matters, which means that all that is mentioned in the Holy Qur’an has been revealed, and in this terminology, exegesis is one of the sciences that are concerned with understanding and explaining the Qur’an. What Allah Almighty revealed to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, was in order to facilitate the understanding of the Qur’an for all people and to help them understand the verses.

It is also known as the science through which the interpreter searches for the method of pronouncing the words of the Noble Qur’an, the rulings of the verses, and the stories related to the verses.

The science of exegesis is among the beneficial sciences, as it is the science related to the Book of Allah Almighty and the science of exegesis through which we get to know the meanings that are mentioned in the Holy Qur’an.

It is through these meanings that a person is helped to reach a righteous deed, obtain the pleasure of Allah Almighty, and give a person guidance to do everything stated in the Qur’an. The generous teachings and rulings can all be understood through the interpretation of the Quran. It is through this that we Muslims are able to distinguish right from wrong and follow the right path. Understanding the Quran is the key to everything.

Also, the jurist is able, through the science of exegesis, to reach all the legal rulings, as the Noble Qur’an is our final guide for all matters related to this world and the hereafter. For an ordinary Muslim especially a non-Arabic speaker the gap between reciting and understanding the Quran is filled through tafsir.

Take a look at some tafsirs available at Darussalam below.

Also Read: Tafsir As Sadi (Part 28,29 & 30)