Tafsir al-Qurtubi - Introduction: The General Judgments of the Qur'an and Clarification of what it contains of the Sunnah and āyahs of Discrimination

The tafsīr of al-Qurṭubī is perhaps one of the most compendious of them all and is certainly among the most famous. As its title al-Jāmi li Aḥkām al-Qurān - The General Judgments of the Quran suggests its main focus is on the rulings and judgments to be found in the Qurān. However in the course of doing that al-Qurṭubī examines all the relevant sciences necessary such as the ḥadīth pertaining to the āyahs events in the sīrah what the Companions their Followers and other noted people of knowledge said about the āyahs essential aspects of Arabic etymology syntax and usage copiously illustrated by examples and much more. In this introduction the author lays out some of the key themes of the Quran: Its virtues and the reciters; how to recite it; cautioning against showing off; what the one who knows the Quran must do and not neglect to do; learning its syntax; the excellence of tafsīr; the excellence of the bearer of the Quran; the respect and esteem mandatory for the Quran; threats against engaging in tafsīr by means of opinion (ray); the Book being explained by the Sunnah; how to learn and understand the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Prophet s; that it used to be easier to act by it than to memorise it; the words of the Prophet s; The Quran was revealed in seven aḥruf (dialects/modes); the seven readings; the collection of the Quran; the memorisation of the Quran by the Companions at the time of the Prophet s; the order of the sūrahs and āyahs of the Quran; the meaning of the words sūrah āyah kalimah (word) and ḥarf (letter); non-Arabic words in the Quran; the inimitability of the Quran; hadiths forged about the excellence of the sūrahs of the Quran; refutation of those who attack the Quran; the Seeking Refuge with Allah from Shayṭān and the Basmalah. Diwan Press will be publishing the entire tafsīr in 30 volumes along with the Introduction. Abū Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Abī Bakr ibn Farḥ al-Anṣārī al-Khazrajī al-Andalusī al-Qurṭubī (610-11 AH/1214 CE - 671 AH/1273 CE) was born in Cordoba in Spain but moved in 1236 to Cairo in Egypt where he lived until his death. He was Mālikī in fiqh and although he composed other works he is most famous for this tafsīr. Aisha Bewley is the translator of a large number of classical works of Islam and Sufism often in collaboration with Abdalhaqq Bewley notably The Noble Quran - a New Rendering of Its Meanings in English; Muhammad Messenger of Allah - the translation of Qāḍī Iyāḍs ash-Shifā; the Muwaṭṭa of Imam Mālik ibn Anas; and Imam an-Nawawīs Riyāḍ aṣ-Ṣāliḥīn.