Ever flourishing never perishing
“We have
sent down to you the Book explaining everything, a guide, a Mercy and Glad
tidings to Muslim.”
The Holy Scripture of Islam, Quran remains as a never
unraveled mystery even after fourteen centuries, as the commendations of Quran,
that is reported to have started primarily in the time prophet, although not
much pervaded, are remained uncompleted so far.
The art of commendation of Quran is
developed through various phases. At the inception, the Quranic teachings were
directly imparted to the companions by Prophet himself. There were, naturally,
not much need to have a commentary of Quran as the companions ask Him if any
suspicions lurk in their mind.
It was in the period of Thabi’een, the
generation followed by Sahaba that the schools of learning Quranic teachings
were established under the eminent commentators of Sahaba, Ibnu Abbas in Meccah
and Ubayy Ibn Ka’ab in Madeena.
The third century of Hijra was
witnessed for drastic changes in the commendation of Quran. It was in this
phase, mostly known as the ‘recording period’ that the Quranic exegesis in the
mode of a book was commenced in subsequent to the hard works of a cluster of
scholars. The prime seat deserves to Ibnu Jareer Al-thabri, whose exegesis thafsir
Al Thabri is said to be the first of this sort.
The following periods was of the
development of specialization in the commentary of Quran, as the commendation
was done in diverse aspects in accordance with their specialized genres. Some were shrunk to mere grammatical and
morphological aspects of Quran while some others concerned with its rational
and philosophical aspects. There were commentators who are interested in
recording the stories depicted in the Quran while some others who are engaged
in contriving the Islamic jurisprudence mentioned in the Quran.
With the rise of “subject based
analysis” of Quran, every humanly and natural problems were met in Islamic
perspective. Subsequently, the commendation of Quran became widespread in
diverse languages in contrast to early periods. The listed below are a few
among the prolific commentators of Quran in the modern period, their exegesis and methodology they
applied to describe the inner meanings of Quran.
Muhammad Mutawalli
Al-Sha’arawi
Muhammad Mutawalli
AshSha'raawi was born on April 5, 1911, in the village of Dakados, Egypt. At
the age of 11, he had completely memorised the Quran and in 1916 he joined a
Zagazig elementary institution. In 1923, he earned his elementary certificate,
joining the secondary institution afterward. During this time, his interest in
poetry and literature had grown immensely and he went on to be elected leader
of the Student Union at the institution due to his popularity and charisma.
Mutawalli always had a strong desire to stay close to his
family, to help them work their land, but his father insisted that he would
attend AlAzhar University. In 1937, he joined the College of Arabic Language
and became active in the nationalist movement and AlAzhar movement,
participating in the anticolonial rallies and related gatherings.
Career
After graduating in 1940, he went on to earn his teaching
certification in 1943. He later graduated from the religious institution of
Tanta. In 1950, he moved to Saudi Arabia to work as professor of Sharee'ah in
the University of UmmulQuraa.
However, in 1963, the diplomatic relations between Egypt and
Saudi Arabia worsened and it became impossible for him to return to Arabia.
Instead, he took the position of manager of the office of the Imam of AlAzhar, Hasan
al Ma'amoon. Later, he travelled to Algeria as a head of the AlAzhar expedition,
where he stayed for seven years. During his stay in Algeria, the war of June
1967 occurred and Egypt suffered tremendous losses to Israel. Ironically,
AshSha'raawi 'praised' the defeat, saying "Egypt did not gain victory
while the hands of communism surrounds them and their religion remains
uncorrupted." Later, he did get to return to teach at the King Abdul Azeez
University in Saudi Arabia.
In
November 1976, Mamdouh Salem, then Prime Minister, chose the members of his
cabinet, among them was AshSha'raawi, appointed Minister of Endowments until
October 1978. During this time, he issued a law that helped establish the first
Islamic bank in Egypt in 1979. The bank, Faisal Islamic Bank, was approved by
the People's Assembly during that time.
On reflection of his influence was the Egyptian parliament's
repeated blocking of legislation permitting organ transplant operations, after
Alsharawi issued a Fatwā declaring such operations Haraam (sinful) (incase
organs are sold and not just "donated") on the grounds that `humans
do not own their bodies`.
On June 4, 1998, AshSha'raawi died with little known about
the details surrounding his death. Reportedly more than a million mourners
packed Cairo's streets in a display of grief.
Works
Although he is best known for his Quranic exegesis, he has penned
several works include:
1 Israa and
Mi'raaj ,
2 Secrets of
In the name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful
3 Islaam and
modern thinking
4 Islaam and
women, curriculum and religion
Thafseer
alsha’arawi
Thafseer al sharawi is a collectcion of the lectures of
Muhammed Muthawalli alsharawi , given to the disciples of various universities.
The thafseer distincts from the rest in its mode of elaboration of the meaning
of Quranul kareem making use of his brilliance to reasoning and his thorough
knowledge of every genres of Quran. Unfortunately, he could not ink the meaning
of Quran to its completion, as he was recalled to the world of eternity with
none has a little knowledge about the details.
The
methodology he applied to elucidate the meaning of a verse is ultimate as he
mentions the linguistic terminologies, eloquence and metaphor under every
verse. It is molded in a manner that needs not to a class room teaching but
self-reading as he directly goes to explain the mysterious meanings explicitly
having not brought unreliable stories connected with Israel and the
contradictions of scholars.
He, most often than not, does depend to mere Quranic verses
to define the meaning of a verse, never to the former commentators of Quran and
very a little to prophetic Hadiths. That is why he is said to be below par in
prophetic teachings.
Sayyid Qutb
Sayyid
Qutb, born on 9 October 1906 in the Egyptian village of Musha, located in Upper
Egypt's Asyut Province, was an Egyptian author, educator, Islamic theorist,
poet, and the leading member of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood in the 1950s
and 1960s. In 1966 he was convicted of plotting the assassination of Egyptian
president Gamal Abdel Nasser and was executed by hanging. Author of 24 books,
including novels, literary arts critique and works on education, he is best
known in the Muslim world for magnum opus, Fi Zilal al-Quran (In the Shade of
the Qur'an), is a 30-volume commentary on the Quran.
During
most of his life, Qutb had company with influential politicians, intellectuals,
poets and literary figures of his age and of the preceding generation. By the
mid-1940s, many of his writings were officially among the curricula of schools,
colleges and universities.
Even though most of his observations and criticism were
leveled at the Muslim world, Qutb is also known for his intense disapproval of
the society and culture of the United States, which he saw as obsessed with
materialism, violence, and sexual pleasures.
He moved to Cairo
where between 1929 and 1933 he received an education based on the British style
of schooling before starting his career as a teacher in the Ministry of Public
Instruction. During his early career, Qutb devoted himself to literature as an
author and critic, writing such novels as Ashwak (Thorns). From 1948 to 1950,
he went to the United States on a scholarship to study its educational system,
spending several months at Colorado State College of Education (now the
University of Northern Colorado) in Greeley, Colorado. Qutb's first major
theoretical work of religious social criticism, Al-'adala al-Ijtima'iyya
fi-l-Islam (Social Justice in Islam), was published in 1949, during his time in
the West.
Qutb never married, in part because of
his steadfast religious convictions. While the urban Egyptian society he lived
in was becoming more Westernized, Qutb believed the Quran taught women that
'Men are the managers of women's affairs. Qutb lamented to his readers that he
was never able to find a woman of sufficient "moral purity and
discretion" and had to reconcile himself to bachelorhood.
In August 1965, He was accused of plotting to
overthrow the state and jailed placing many of the charges against Qutb in
court. The trial culminated in a death sentence for Qutb and six other members
of the Muslim Brotherhood. He was sentenced to death for his part in the
conspiracy to assassinate the President and other Egyptian officials and
personalities, though he was not the instigator or leader of the actual plot.
On 29 August 1966, he was executed by hanging.
Works
Literary:
• Mahammat
al-Sha'ir fi'l-Hayah wa Shi'r al-Jil al-Hadir (The Task of the Poet in Life and the Poetry of the
Contemporary Generation), 1933
• Al-Shati al-Majhul (The Unknown Beach),
1935
• Mashahid
al-Qiyama fi'l-Qur'an (Aspects of Resurrection in the Qu'ran), 1946
Theoretical:
• Al-Adala al-Ijtima'iyya fi'l-Islam
(Social Justice in Islam), 1949
• Ma'rakat
al-Islam wa'l-Ra's Maliyya (The Battle between Islam and Capitalism), 1951
• Al-Salam al-'Alami wa'l-Islam (World
Peace and Islam), 1951
• Fi Zilal al-Qur'an (In the Shade of the
Quran)
Fi Zilal
al-Qur'an
In The Shade of the
Qur'an is more than 'just another' commentary; Yet it is not too overreaching
or outlandish to be a completely new interpretation. It is an earnest, sincere
and sober look at man's contemporary achievements and difficulties in the light
of the message of the Qur'an. It is an effort to vigorously explore its rich
wisdom, and expand its invaluable guidance for the benefit of an increasingly
‘sophisticated’, yet highly perplexed modern society.
The work, which is by far Sayyid Qutb's largest and most
profound, spans the whole of the text of the Qur'an. It was written, and partly
rewritten, over a period of more than 15 years, most of which the author had
spent in Egyptian prisons, during the 1950s and 1960s. It is embedded in the
work Sayyid Qutb's insight, highly esteemed intellectual vigor, and his widely
acclaimed literary prowess.
In The Shade of the Qur'an has been universally recognized as
an outstanding contribution to Islamic thought and scholarship, to which
students and scholars, as well as contemporary Islamic Revivalist movements all
over the world, owe a great deal. Now that it is available in English, it will
continue to enlighten and inspire millions more. It will take its rightful
place as an indispensable work of reference for a proper understanding of
contemporary Islamic thinking.
BEDIUZZAMAN SAID NURSI
Bediuzzaman Said Nursi
was born in eastern Turkey in 1873 and died in 1960 at the age of 87 after a
life of exemplary struggle and self-sacrifices in cause of islam. He was a
scholar of highest standard having studied not only all the traditional
religious sciences but also modern science and had earned Bediuzzaman, swonder
of the age, in his youth as a result of outstanding ability and learning.
Bediuzzaman’s lifetime spanned the final decades of the
caliphate and Ottoman Empire, its collapse and dismemberment after the first
world war,and after the setting up of the republic the twenty five years of
single party rule followed by ten years of Democratic rule, when conditions
eased a little for him. Not only as religious scholar he had served but also as
a volunteer regiment against the invading Russians in eastern Turkey. In 1914
he was imprisoned by Russian force.
Risalei
Nur
The
Risalei Nur Collection, originally written in Ottoman Turkish, is a tafsir
(Islamic exegesis) on the Qur'an written by Bediuzzaman Said Nursi between the
1910s and 1950s. The commentary does not keep to the order of the ayah as is
done in classic Quranic commentaries, as it makes comments on their meanings. It
is rather a thematic tafsir which deals with the doubts surrounding the basic
doctrines and principles of Islam. The collection includes fourteen books.
The primary purpose of the Risalei Nur
is to bring about a religious revival in Turkey. The collection includes an analysis
of Islamic sources and a reinterpretation in accordance with the mental
structure of Said Nursi's age. However, it isn't solely an exegesis, as it
includes reflections and details about Said Nursi's own life and interpretations.
These reflections and details help the reader to learn how to practice every
day activities on Qur'an norms, and "install" Qur'an to a person's
alternating life situations and emotions.
With these writings,
Bediuzzaman opened up a new, direct window to reality (haqiqat) and knowledge
of God which he described as the highway of the Qur'an and way of the
companions of Prophet Muhammad through the "legacy of prophet hood",
which gains for those who follow it "true and certain belief". Said
Nursi did not ascribe the writings to himself, but claimed that they
"proceeded from the Qur'an itself" like "rays shining out of
from [its] truths". Thus, rather than being a Qur'anic commentary which
expounds all its verses giving the immediate reasons for their revelation and
the apparent meanings of the words and sentences, the Risalei Nur is what is
known as a commentary which expounds the meaning of the Qur'anic truths.
The chief concerns of Nursi are of truths of belief, the
Divine activity in the universe, the Divine existence, Oneness, resurrection,
prophet hood, Divine destiny, and man's duties of worship. Bediuzzaman explains
how the Qur'an addresses all men in every age in accordance with the degree of
their understanding and development; It has a face that looks to each age. The
Risalei Nur, then, explains that face of the Qur'an which looks to this age.
MOHAMMAD AL-GHAZALI
Sheikh Mohammed
al-Ghazali al-Saqqa, born in 1917 in Nikla al-inab,an outskirt of Alaxandriya,
was an Islamic cleric and scholar of Egypt whose writings have tremendously
influenced generations of Egyptians. He graduated from Al Azhar University in
1941. He taught at the University of Umm al-Qura in Makkah, the University of
Qatar, and at al-Amir 'Abd al-Qadir University for Islamic Sciences in Algeria.
The
author of 94 books, Sheikh Ghazali attracted a broad following with works that
sought to interpret Islam and its holy book, the Qur'an, in a modern light. He
is widely credited with contributing to a revival of Islamic faith in Egypt
over the last decade. Sources introduces him as one of the most revered sheikhs
in the Muslim world.
Sheikh al-Ghazali held the post of
Chairman of the Academic Council of the International Institute of Islamic
Thought in Cairo. Sheikh al-Ghazali was also the recipient of many awards,
including the First Order of the Republic (Egypt) (1988), the King Faisal Award
(1989) and the Excellence Award from Pakistan.
Works
· Islam and the
Modern Economy
· Islam and
Political Despotism
· Fanaticism and
Tolerance Between Christianity and Islam
· Fiqh Al Seerah
· Tafsir on the
Qur'an
· Laisa Minal
Islam (Not From Islam)
A
THEMATIC COMMENTARY ON THE QURAN
It is a much esteemed Quranic exegesis of the modern Egypt
which is an instrumental to the learners of Quran in their learning of the
Maqasid al Quran, the objectives of Quran. It is relatively an innovation in
the Quranic commentaries to have a glance at the connection between two verses,
two chapters or between the starting and ending of chapter which is effectively
done by the author. A Thematic Commentary by Shaykh al-Ghazali is a significant
contribution to comprehensive reading of the Qur'an - the repository of divine
truth and enlightenment.
Already
of course there are prodigious number of exegetical works on the Qur'an. But
while early scholars endeavored to elucidate many linguistic, historical, and
miraculous aspects of the sacred and challenging text, al-Ghazali's
contribution is somewhat unique and modern in the sense that it focuses on the
organic unity of each surah (chapter) highlighting the logic or inherent
reasoning that courses through the surah and unifies its various components and
images. No exegesis is by itself sufficient for a full understanding of the
Qur'an. But this work is an indispensable companion in the quest for a better
comprehension of the sacred text.
MUHAMMAD
SHAFI DEOBANDI
Muḥammad
Shafī‘ , son of Maulana Muhammad Yasin,
born on 25 January 1897 in Deoband, British India (in present-day Saharanpur
district, Uttar Pradesh, India) to an Usmani family,often referred to as Mufti
Muhammad Shafi, was a South Asian Sunni Islamic scholar of the Deobandi school
of Islamic thought. A Hanafi jurist and mufti, he was also an authority on
shari'ah, hadith, tafsir, and mysticism. At about the age of five, Shafi began
reading of the Qur'an with Hafiz Muhammad Azim at the Darul Uloom. After
reading the Qur'an, he did memorize the Qur'an with Hafiz Abdul Azim and Hafiz
Namdar Khan.
In
1907 he commenced the study of Urdu, Persian, mathematics and other subjects at
Darul Uloom Deoband, which he completed within the next five years under the
supervision of his father. Along with
teaching Shafi the Persian books, Maulana Yasin also instructed him in the
elementary Arabic books of sarf (morphology), nahw (grammar), and fiqh
(jurisprudence). He graduated in 1917 from Darul Uloom Deoband, where he later
taught hadith and held the post of Chief Mufti.
He
resigned from the school in 1943 to devote his time to the Pakistan Movement. After
the independence he moved to Pakistan, where he established Darul Uloom Karachi
in 1951.
There he taught Sahih al-Bukhari for several years, as well
as Muwatta of Malik and Shama'il at-Tirmidhi. Whenever due to health or other
responsibilities he was unable to teach the whole of Bukhari, then those years
he would teach until the Book of Wudu, and other teachers would cover the
remainder. In the last four years of his life, he was bedridden and thus unable
to teach regularly. However, on the insistence of students and teachers, every
year he taught the first lesson of Sahih al-Bukhari and the last lessons of the
Sihah Sittah. He is regarded as the first Grand Mufti of Pakistan. Of his
written works, his best-known is Ma'ariful Qur'an, a tafsir of the Qur'an.
Maariful Quran
Ma'ariful Qur'an is an eight volume tafsir (exegesis) of the
Quran written by Pakistani Sunni Islamic scholar Mufti Muhammad Shafi
(1897–1976). Originally written in Urdu, it has been translated to several
languages.
Background
About the background and starting of
Ma'ariful Qur'an, Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani has written in the Foreword of the
English translation of the same: ‘The origin of Ma'ariful Qur'an refers back to
the 2nd of July 1954 when the author was invited to give weekly lectures on the
Radio Pakistan to explain selected verses of the Holy Qur'an to the general
audience. This invitation was accepted by the author on the condition that he
would not accept any remuneration for this service and that his lectures would
be broadcast without any interference by the editing authorities. The permanent
title of this weekly program was "Ma'arifulQur'an" (The Wisdom of the
Holy Qur'an) and it was broadcast every Friday morning on the network of Radio
Pakistan. ‘This series of lectures continued for ten years up to the month of
June 1964.
‘This weekly program of Radio
Pakistan was warmly welcomed by the Muslims throughout the globe and used to be
listened to by thousands of Muslims, not only in Pakistan and India but also in
Western and African countries. ‘After the program was discontinued, there was a
flood of requests from all over the world to transfer this series in a book
form and to complete the remaining part of the Holy Qur'an in the shape of a
regular commentary.
‘These requests persuaded the
esteemed author to revise these lectures and to add those verses which were not
included in the original lectures. He started this project in 1964 and
completed the commentary of Surah alFatihah in its revised form and started the
revision of Surah alBaqarah. However, due to his numerous involvements he had
to discontinue this task, and it remained unattended during the next five
years. ‘In 1969, the esteemed author suffered from a number of diseases which
made him restricted to his bed. It was during this ailment that he restarted
this work while on bed and completed Surah alBaqarah in the same condition.
Since then he devoted himself to the "Ma'arifulQur'an" until he
accomplished the work in eight volumes (comprising about seven thousand pages)
within five years only’.
The work consists of eight volumes. A detailed introduction,
included at the beginning of the first volume, focuses on some of the basic
issues of the Quran. Notable among them are the Wahy, the modes of descent, the
chronology of the revelation of the Quran, the first revealed verses (ayah),
Meccan and Medinan verses, the preservation of the Quran, the printing of the
Quran, the sources of Tafsir, Arabic language etc. The work adopts a simple
narrative style: first, several verses
are provided in the original Arabic with their literal translation in Urdu; It
is then followed by subject wise discussion on almost every important issue.
This narrative technique is repeated until the end.
Ma'ariful Qur'an not only includes the discussions and
analysis of the Quran found in the authentic sources of Tafsir, it also tries
to answer the contemporary questions and issues in a logical and scholarly
manner, which is rather absent in other traditional Tafsirs. Tafsir Maariful
Quran has been translated into English by Prof. Muhammad Hasan Askari and Prof.
Muhammad Shamim, and revised by Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani. The complete eight
volumes of Tafsir Maariful Quran have also been translated into Bengali by
Maulana Muhiuddin Khan.
Sources
In the
introduction of Ma'ariful Qur'an, the author has mentioned the sources he has
taken help from in compiling this voluminous work. Some of them are:Tafsir ibn
Jarir, Tafsir ibn Kathir, Tafsir alQurtubi, Tafsir alBahr alMuhit
ABUL KALAM AZAD
Maulana Abul kalam Ghulam
muhyuddin,born in November 11,1888, popularly known as Moulana Azad, was one of
the frontline muslim figures in the
independence movement of India. Born in Mecca, he was brought as an infant to
Calcutta by his father, who was very keen to teach him the fundamental
principles of Islam.
The pen named as Azad, he founded an extremely pan Islamic
weekly Alhilal the crescent, which
brought him into conflict with the authorities in Calcutta. Al Hilal played an
important role in forging Hindu-Muslim unity after the bad blood created
between the two communities in the aftermath of Morly-Minto reforms. As a result of anti-British agitation along
with Gandhi led independence movement, soon became one of the most prominent
members of congress party.
Azad was also a renowned scholar and poet. He was well versed
in many languages, English, Hindi, Urdu, Persian and Bangali. He was a
brilliant debater’ as indicated by his name, Abul kalam , which literally means
“lord of dialogue”.
He
was elected as congress president in1923 and 1940 .He was made the frist
education minister of post independent India until his death in 1958. The
tenure was witnessed for building of several educational establishments,
cultural centers and sahithya academies throughout the country. For his
invaluable contribution to the nation, he was posthumously awarded India’s
highest civilian honor, Bharat Ratna in 1992.
Tarjmanul Quran
A committed Muslim cum
politician, he had seized each possible opportunities to explain Islam to his
Indian co-religionists. His greatest achievement in this domain was Tarjmanul
Quran, a Quranic exegesis that completed in 1930, in which he provided with an
easily discernable Urdu translation and commentary.
Azad had to face several intrinsic
difficulties in the production of his masterpiece as a result of the charges
taken against him by the authorities of British government on account of his
political activities along with Gandhi and nationalist intellectuals in
1920s.it was when he was in detention that his manuscript text got into order
by having produced in calligraphy. He was tragically frustrated to find his
calligraphic text seized by authorities and torn. It was to be nine years
before the work was finally published.
In
this exegesis, he commented on the meanings of the Noble Qur’an in an easy and
pleasant format. He addressed under every verse those issues of current life which can be extracted from
it, in such a way that it elucidates to the reader that the Noble Qur’an
carries an eternal message for every man and every time, and it guides him in
complex affairs of life to that in which is goodness and righteousness and
uprightness. Indeed this exegesis, in this respect, comprises of rare academic
investigations created by the modern age.
Abdulla Yusuf ALI
Abdullah Yusuf Ali, born in Bombay, British India to a
wealthy merchant family born in 14 April 1872, was an Indian Islamic scholar
who translated the Qur'an into English. He lived many years of his life in
England where he died in 1952. His
translation and commentary has been published many times and is used widely in
the English speaking world as well as in places where English is read and
understood.
As a child, Ali received a religious education and,
eventually, could memorize the Quran. He was well versed in Arabic and
English. Ali was an outspoken supporter
of the Indian contribution to the Allied effort in World War I. He was a
respected intellectual in India and Sir Muhammad Iqbal recruited him to be the
principal of Islamia College in Lahore, British India.
Thanks to
his efforts on studying Quran and its early exegeses, he could author a Quranic
commentary that is considered to the best of his works. The Holy Qur'an: Text,
Translation and Commentary is an English translation of the Qur'an by Indian
Muslim civil servant Abdullah Yusuf Ali. It has become one of the most widely
known English translations of the Qur'an in English speaking world, due in part
to its prodigious use of footnotes, its accuracy and simplicity.
Ali began
his translation in the 1920s, after he had retired from the Civil Service and
settled in the United Kingdom. The translation was first published in 1934 by
Muhammad Ashraf Publishers of Lahore, India (later Pakistan), one of the major
Islamic publishing houses still in business today. The original translation was
in its third edition at the time of Ali's death.
References
v Manahijul Quran
v Kalamullah.Com |
Fi Dhilal alQuran
v Wikipedia, the
free encyclopedia
v Risaley Nur
v English Translation
Tharjumanul Quran
v Introduction : A thematic commentary of Quran
written by
SHRAFUDHEEN.K
DHARUL ULOOM
ISLAMIC AND ARTS COLLAGE
WAFY
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