Ali Ataie – Issues Interpreting the Qur’anic Text (Part 7) Qur’anic Sciences Series
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
So today, we're going to,
finish to see
it,
next to Jesus.
And then next week,
we'll do some miscellaneous topics and have a
q and a session. If you have time
for a q and a session
Now as well, if at any time during
the class you have a question, you can
ask it. You don't have to wait till
after something.
Right? So you can ask any question, doesn't
mean you're gonna get an answer.
So
I don't know as an answer.
But that did he
there was a man who lived in Morocco
during the time of
imam. Malik ibn Anas is
the imam of Masjid al Nabawi, as you
know.
He walked from Morocco to Medina,
and then he got to Medina.
And he asked Imam Malik 36 questions.
And to 32 of them,
Imam Malik said,
I don't know. Allah knows best.
But he was so happy that he might
not have answered 4 of his questions.
Okay.
So last time you said that,
when it comes to Tasir, there are 2
main approaches or methods
to Tasir.
One approach is called tahili,
which
is analytical
to exegesis is to
interpret the Quran
verse by verse in order.
Then we said
there's
or thematic exegesis.
Right? It's a look at a certain theme
and pull out those ayats from the Quran
and comment upon them.
And we said the mufassilim,
the exegetes who
undertake these methods
have 3 types of tafsir that they use.
And these types are.
Alright? Also called the
by transmission.
We said there was 4 levels of that,
and then we said
also called the diraya,
tafsir by,
qualified opinion,
and then tafsir al Ishara
by indication.
So last time, we began talking about.
Right? We said that
tasirbar transmission has 4 levels.
There's tasir of Quran with Quran.
And then tasir of Quran
by the sunnah,
then tasir of Quran
by the Sahaba,
the Tasir of Quran by the
of followers.
And then
I believe we began talking about Tasir Berali
as well.
Is that right?
Yeah. By reason or rigorous scholarship,
by each jihad, right?
And we said here there's 2 types of
Tasir also.
There's Tasir
Mahmud
and Tasir Madamoun.
There's accepted
Tasir and there's,
rejected
Tasir.
So
we said when it comes to Tasir Mahmud
that
the exeget must be proficient
in various
disciplines or sciences.
Right? So it's not just
someone
says, you know,
I studied a little bit of Arabic, and
I think this Aya needs this.
Right? Again, this doesn't negate
this idea that
the Quran has a
personal meaning for us.
We talked about that as well.
That a lot of people convert to Islam
because
they'll read an ayah in translation.
It will change their life.
Right?
We're talking about someone who is presenting themselves
as an authority
and is saying that this is what the
ayah means in my opinion. So one must
have lova. Right? They must
be a master of Arabic.
And 14 times in the Quran,
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
qualifies the noun Quran with Arabian.
Quran and Arabian.
This is an Arabic Quran.
It's
Arabic.
So
my teachers,
they would say when they would quote the
Quran in another language,
Sheikh Muhammad Ali Abu, he may Allah preserve
him. When he would quote the Quran
in English, he would say some of the
meanings may suggest the following.
Right? Some of the meanings.
Right? The
the meanings may suggest the following, and then
you'll say
the verse of the ayah in in English.
But the Quran is Arabic, and they're gonna
say,
commenting on Surah Al Baqarah
that,
women whom
That from them are some that are illiterate
who don't know the kitab.
Even Abbas says the kitab here is.
The Torah,
accept their own sort of vain interpretations. So
if an Abbas'
exegesis
says that the reason why many of the
Bani Israel began to go astray
is simple. It's the loss of the law,
the loss of their language.
Go back a 100 years from now.
Most Catholics
knew some Latin.
It was required.
They would pray in Latin.
Every
Catholic knew some Latin.
They would teach it in school,
Greek and Latin.
But that's no longer the case. I've even
met, you know, Christian pastors.
These are people who, you know, run churches,
who don't know any Greek or Latin.
They actually called me to go and teach
a section of Greek to their congregation.
And so it's a good idea, but then
they always change their mind at the last
second and say, no. You might
cross the ties or something.
Make some Dawa, you know, undercover Dawa.
So, you know, you have to know. You
have to know other.
You have to know the. You have to
know the of the prophet.
You have to know hadith. You have to
know Aspab and Buzor. We talked about this.
Right? You have to know the the
signs of abrogation and the extent of that
and the different opinions regarding that. So all
these things one has to know in order
to have a tafsir Mahmood
berrai. And then we said there's tafsir
madamun, which is blame worthy, which is rejected.
This is someone who gives their mere opinion,
goes against the doesn't have,
requisite knowledge.
The Sahaba and the Tabi were very cautious
about
Tafsir al Mirai,
very cautious.
Said and
ask him questions about halal and haram. He
would answer readily,
but when he would they would ask him
questions about Tesir,
he was silent as if he didn't hear.
And then we have Tesir with,
the Ishara or by indication.
So here the,
interpretation is beyond the outward meetings of the
Quran,
and these occur to a heart which Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala has opened
and this is Allah's prerogative. Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala can give
secrets, asrar,
to whomever he lives.
Right?
This is something that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
does.
So when it comes to this type of
exegesis, sometimes as we said or in the
meetings or definitions of tepid is mystical exegesis.
And when we talked about the different opinions,
the difference between tepid and tepid.
So one of the differences by the urima
is a tafsir is
an interpretation of the outward meanings of the
Quran,
and tafsir was the interpretations of the inward
meanings of the Quran.
So more conservative urnama,
they don't necessarily would engage in this type
of tafsir, but it's very prevalent type of
tafsir amongst.
The Shia were more mystically inclined,
and Christians when it comes to the bible.
Right? So for Christians, almost everything in the
old testament is some sort of
indication,
Ishara of Isiah,
and I think they might go a little
overboard.
There are certainly places in the old
testament
that do that do not fit the description
of the but
rather fit the description of the prophet
Sallallahu alaihi
salam. If they were to entertain that type
of interpretation, many of them do not, and
they don't know much about him. So that's
where we sort of come in and try
to educate people about that.
So to give you an example, and there
are obviously
so many exogies, Ibad Ajeeva and others, Imam
Ghazadi,
Sahilah to study
Abu Dhabi,
who do engage in this,
which is really extraordinary what they say.
I'll give you an example of this.
We talked about this one last time as
Musa alaihi salaam being told by Allah
remove your 2 sandals.
Right? The reason of that, you know, there's
a Bahraini meeting here. There's an explicit meeting
which is that he removed his sandals and
no one is doubting that.
Right? So Malazadeh is Muhammadan,
Minat Dalal,
his sort of autobiography,
if you will.
He says that
he studied with a with different groups of
people. One of them he calls the Esotericism.
The Esotericism.
The Botinia.
Right? The Botinia were those and it seems
to be a a sect of the Shia,
maybe the Isma'ilis
who rejected that the,
Quran has outward meanings. Everything is inward.
Right?
So he rejected their opinions.
But you also have a
a method called the
that denies the inward meanings but only takes
the outward meanings.
So Imam Ghazali says very clearly
remember that from the and each of lights.
Quran has an outward or explicit exoteric meaning
as well as an inward esoteric meaning.
And
both of them should be accepted.
So Imam Ghazali, he uses the example
latitude
to wait and see his Surah.
That the angels do not enter a house
that has a picture or a dog.
Right? And he says, well, what does that
mean on its face? It means that if
there's a dog in the house, exactly what
it says, if there's a dog in that.
Right? So we,
we accept the outward meaning
But then he says there are other people
who reject the outward meaning and say oh
it just means don't bring dog like qualities
into the house. He says both are correct.
Don't bring dog like qualities
if you're a human being, right? Don't bring
those qualities into your home.
So
interesting also is something
that is attributed to I look awesome and
you made
the great
articulators of the solo from the 4th century
of Babadat.
When he speaks to Musa alaihis salam at
the burning bush,
he
says
so he repeats the pronoun
Anna, I am I am God. I am
I am God.
So it's interesting why, you know,
why why the duplication of the.
And Imal Jumei
knows that this is also true in the
Torah
that Musa alaihi salaam in exodus when he's
at the burning bush,
God tells him,
Hebrew. I am who I am.
I am who I am. I am duplicated
again.
So Junaid says that the reason for this
is to stress the core attribute of Allah.
That Allah is
the only one who could truly say I
am
because,
Allah is pure being.
That is non contingent. His
existence does not depend on anything else.
Our existence
is completely dependent on him
And this is one of the meanings of.
Everything is in need of him while he
is in need of nothing.
Right? So,
this is a core attribute.
We study theology.
Theology.
Theology. Allah
has 20 attributes that are considered
wajibat and the the core attribute is wajud
existence.
Allah exists. So this is the
according
to mother's,
This is what Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
is stressing to Musa alaihi salaam
that, the one who is the necessary
existent is speaking with you.
Allah's existence is necessary.
There's there's,
as I said, there's,
you know, Shia Ulema, who have really interesting
things to say as well.
Imam Tabatabari
is Al Bizan.
He looks at a passage from
Surah Safat. Right?
Chapter 37 verse 106.
This is when Ibrahim alaihis salam is ordered
to sacrifice his son. Right?
And then he stops him and he says,
that's verse 106.
Verily, this is a bada, this is a
trial, a tribulation.
And then Imam Matlataebari,
he says,
you know, count 10 ayaat.
From there, you get to verse 115.
That we saved Musa and his brother
from a great disaster.
So Imam Tabatabari,
he's saying here that
the son of Ibrahim, Ismaril,
is a typology of Imam Al Hussein,
alayhis salaam.
Right? And that he's living in Adhim.
You know, he is a great sacrifice.
Adhim.
And he mentions.
He quotes.
And he says, he's great because
this, ram was brought by Jibril Alaihi Salam.
And Imam Tabladegh agrees. He said, yes. That's
true. But there's a different meaning here. There's
a deeper meaning. There's a typological
meaning.
So in in Tavim,
in mystical exegesis,
we have this term typology.
A typology
is something that happens in the past, but
it's really foreshadowing a future event.
Something that happened in the future.
Right?
For example,
the
prophet,
this is Suni Hadid, it's sound hadith.
He says that the ark of Noah is
a typology
of the active bait, his family, at the
end of time.
So whoever embarks on it is saved.
Whoever does not is destroyed.
That's not necessarily a flood of water that's
going to encapsulate
the world, but a flood of, you know,
sin
and, you
know,
and, you know, these types of, these types
these types of things. So attach yourself to
a hidden weight at the end of time
drowned in the sin of of kufo and
nifa.
Right? So it's an example of a typology.
So anyway, you can tell the tabari says,
on 10th of,
you know, you have Imam Hussain being murdered.
We will be 10 verses later.
And he points a very interesting type of
and then he's the calf.
Right? And he says, but
he
conjectures.
So his
is is
that I, I think he says.
His thirst.
Sadhguru,
his
his sincerity.
Right?
They always say.
And then
So so so so I have 46. We're
told that
between
heaven and * as it were, there's a
boundary,
and it's called Al A'raf.
And
on top of this boundary are men,
Youri Funa, who know everyone by their markings.
So these sort of standard exegesis
is that they're ahu fatra,
that they're people that
are between 2 prophetic
dispensations.
So they weren't reached by a sound prophetic
summons.
Sort of in this
purgatorial,
if he will, state, but eventually, they'll go
to Jannah.
And also if he says these are people
who have equal deeds, good and evil.
So they have to wait till the very
end of the judgment and then eventually they
go to get them with Allah's mercy. Everyone
goes by Allah's mercy.
The Shia have interesting interpretation.
They say these are the imams, the, ima,
the 12 imams.
Because as Yarifuna,
at Araf is related to Marifa.
And Sadat Jussade, a Muslim, a a Sunni
exegete, he also says these are people of.
So that's the more,
subtle meaning
of of
of
the people that are on the heights.
But then, Jafar saw that he said and
he's a imam Abu Ahu.
Did I mention this? He said every verse
of the Quran has four levels of meaning.
He used a different terms though. That could
be
what he used a different different terms for.
It. These terms that we gave him class.
Maybe these are terms. So
he said so remember d a s r,
geyser.
That's how I remember. It's an acronym.
Expressions, illusions, subtleties, and realities.
So unsolved, right, expression for the,
illusions,
Isharat for the.
Let's
have subtleties
for also
and, also,
and, and, and, and, and, the prophets, and
realities that are known by Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala and his opinion of it and and
the, you know, haqqaiq
from from these levels of exegesis.
Okay.
Let's see
here.
If you look at Surah,
Telba
123.
Yeah.
Right? So this is re revealed in wartime
situation. Oh, you who believe,
fight those who are around you from the
unbelievers. Imam al Lucy,
we'll talk about his tafsir,
is an interesting
tawil of this.
So he doesn't reject the apparent meaning,
but the way that he interprets this is,
you
know, Now kill
or slay
the lower self
for it truly
encompasses
of the human being.
Right?
So while Islam doesn't have a, you know,
Magisterium,
the Catholics believe that whatever comes out of
the Vatican is infallible.
Right? So that's their called the magisterium.
It's a teaching authority.
We don't have that but we do have
a strong emphasis on each map and
the the
honor of scholars.
You know. So one can make the argument
there's no clergy in Islam, but,
it's not necessarily
accurate
The
are are very they're mentioned by the prophet.
It
It was important to have a strong connection
to Urhana.
Okay.
Another source of
tessir, which is generally
deemed as unreliable,
is called Israeliat
or Judaica
sometimes
called,
or you can call that, you know, sources
of active kitab.
So like the bible, for example,
is really like tradition. So the bible, all
the new testaments, the Talmud.
Right? So these were used very little by
the Sahaba,
much more by the Tabi'in,
generally coming from
and,
and used even more by the Khalaf.
Right? So Imam Tabari makes use of them
as well. Imam al Hazali on occasion,
will quote something from the bible
in one of his books. So right?
The book of knowledge,
the first book of the.
He will say he's talking about benefits of
knowledge, those who apply their knowledge, those who
don't apply their knowledge.
And then he says just as the witness
of Jesus,
whoever does
what they say
shall be called great in the kingdom of
heaven.
And that's, you know, that's not based on
the hadith that I know of. Certainly nothing
in the Quran,
but that's, you know, Matthew chapter 5.
It's quoting something or at least paraphrasing something,
from the bible. So we'll talk about,
you know, when to do that. Generally, the
word of message is permissible to quote something
from,
Israelite tradition,
for the purposes of edification or advice,
but used with great caution.
And we used to
relate the stories of the children of Israel,
and there's nothing wrong with doing that. But
even Kathir, he divides the Israelite tradition into
3 groups.
Israelite,
Ibn Kathia, he divides into 3 groups.
The first group he says, those known to
be true
because,
at least in their meanings, they're Ma'ani.
Those known to be true in their meanings
because the revelation of the prophet
confirms
them.
Right? So,
you know, they read something like
Deuteronomy 64.
Hero Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord
is 1.
And the word for 1 in the Hebrew
is echad,
and it's exactly the same word as aham.
And this verse is actually quoted by Esai,
alaihis salaam, in Mark
chapter 1229.
Hear, oh, Israel, the Lord our God, the
Lord is 1.
And then also, you know, major components of
the story of of Yusuf alaihi salaam,
of Musa alaihi salaam, of Nuh alaihi salaam
are identical would be,
the telling of those stories in the Torah.
So we can confirm those at least in
their meanings.
Right? The second class he says, those known
to be false
because the revelation of the prophet of the
body of the Sonam rejects them.
So if you read something in Israelite tradition
where a certain prophet is committing a sin,
a major sin,
then certainly we should we must reject
that narrative.
Even the bible itself
at times will
give a different version of the same story
where these things are left off.
There's 2 versions of the story of David
and Solomon.
1 is told in 1st and second kings
where all of these horrendous things are attributed
to David and Solomon.
Really, like, I mean, I mean, come out
of it type sins.
And then another author,
telling the same stories,
the chronicler,
1st and second chronicles, a little bit later
doesn't mention any of those
incidents where these prophets were committing sin.
So it seems even within the biblical tradition,
there's a difference of opinion
about the nature
of attributing sins at least these two persons,
David and Solomon.
And then you can get here says the
class of Israelite tradition.
Those,
not known to be true or false.
So here, so don't affirm or deny Allahu
Adam. For
example, we're told in the Quran that could
raise the dead.
But we're not given details. Like, who was
it? When was it? Was this in Galilee?
Was it in Jerusalem?
When when when did this happen? No such
details given in the Quran. No such details
given in the Hadith as far as I
know.
The reading of the New Testament, however, Jesus,
peace be upon him, was in a place
called Bethany
outside of Jerusalem,
and they took him to a,
sepulcher.
And it was a man named Lazarus who
was actually one of his friends,
and he raised them from the dead. So
Allah will add whether these details are true
or not.
We cannot confirm or deny.
It could be true. It doesn't negate the
Quran. You know, it's not problematic from an
Akiva standpoint,
but we can't affirm or deny. Or, like,
you know, we're told that Hadith that Yahya
alaihi was murdered.
Right? We don't know much details about that.
We have this full narrative of Matthew, Mark,
and Luke
about how he criticized,
the marriage of
Herod Antipas who was sort of the puppet
king of Judea
at the time that he was imprisoned, and
eventually he was decapitated.
His head was set on a plate,
and then thrown to his,
disciples who were outside
along the island. We don't know the details
of that.
Okay.
Now what's interesting is
the early amount of the Quran,
they give us some guidance as to how
to deal with the is is already at.
So this is mentioned by,
Usmani in his text.
He uses the example of so it's a
calf I under 22.
18/22.
Right? So here we have a story that's
found in Christian tradition.
Right? The sleepers of Ephesus.
Sometimes called the 7 sleepers of Ephesus.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
says in meaning, some of the meanings may
suggest in this ayah.
They say there were 3 of them
and the 4th was their dog.
They say there were 5 of them
and the 6th were their dog.
Conjecturing
about the unseen,
conjecturing about the unseen.
They say there were 7 of them
and the 8th was their dog.
Say
my lord knows best their number.
None knows them except a few so do
not argue about them.
The argument must say this is this is
our method when dealing with the
Israelite.
So if you look at this,
number 1,
we learn from this that describing these traditions
is permissible
because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala describes
what they're saying.
Right? He does that in the ayah. This
is what they're saying at the Github. Some
of them are saying there were 3 in
the 4th of their dogs and some 5
in the 6th. Right? He describes it. So
it's permissible.
And then those which
have been proven false
must be rejected.
Right? So the first two of what they're
saying, Allah says,
they're
conjecturing
about the unseen.
So it's definitely not those 2.
The 4th, I'm afraid it was her dog.
The 5th and the 6th was their was
their dog.
So the lesson here is
those proven to be false must be rejected.
That's what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala does.
And then number 3, no judgment should be
made
on the version which is proven which is
not proven false.
No judgment should be made on the version
which is not proven false because then he
says, and then some say there were 7
and the 8th one was their dog. This
is a dominant opinion among Zapriquita.
The 7 sleepers of Ephesus.
But a lot of them say, well, this
is the truth.
They didn't say that. Right?
So we shouldn't make a judgment about it.
We shouldn't be definitive
on it. Right?
And then the 4th step,
insist on that the truth lies with Allah
alone because right after that Allah says my
lord knows best their number.
And then finally,
no unnecessary
debate on this issue.
So do not argue about that.
Again, the ISS, they say they were 3
and the 4th was their dog.
They also say there were 5 of them
and the 6th were their dog, conjecturing about
the unseen.
Others say there were 7 of them and
the 8th of them was their dog. Say
my lord knows that's their number.
None knows them except a few so do
not argue about that.
This is how we deal with this.
This is the eye of it.
The other bubble use.
Okay.
At this point, I wanted to get into
some of the major
tests I see in our tradition. Just give
you the titles a little bit so you're
familiar with them.
Classical Qur'anic exegesis.
The oldest,
available is the Hasid al Ibru Abbas.
The Quran who died 68 Ijani. It's called
the Tanu'i'u Miqbas.
However, they heard about many of them would
doubt its authenticity.
Right? So again, if they're gonna have bats,
we have to be careful,
about what's attributed to them.
This tafsir contains a lot of fabricated hadith,
and many of them must say a lot
of the traditions in this hadith and this
tafsir
actually come from a student Mujahid
or.
It's very ancient. Obviously, there's authenticated
traditions that come from the,
and so we have to let deeper than
Magadis on this point.
Probably if you consider the magnum opus, the
masterpiece of the early Tethasir
is by Imam Tabari.
Imam Tabari,
and he died 9/22,
of the common era, 9/22, Nivadi.
And this tasir was called, January Bayan,
Quraan.
Also a great historian.
His Tasir contains Tasir bi rewaya.
Right? Tasir of Quran with Quran, Tasir of
Quran with Sunnah,
tafsir of Quran with sahaba.
But also contains some as
well. Some Israelite tradition.
There's a 1954
printing and 15 volumes,
in Arabic.
Probably one of the best of the later
tafasir, about 400 years later,
is an 8 volume work by Ismerid ibn
Muhammar ibn Kafi'at the Masjid.
So it's to see what it's called.
Or sometimes just called
or sometimes just called or sometimes just.
Right? He said Eden Kaffir says, you know
that you're talking
about his Tasir.
And this actually,
the last I heard
was translated into English.
Right?
That's what people are telling me now.
Abigail has more of a discussion on the
ISNAC of many reports.
He makes much use of,
to see the Quran with the Quran.
It's a summary of sorts of Imam al
Tabari.
There's more emphasis
on sound reports,
Right? Almost a total rejection of Israelite
tradition.
There was a,
an abridgment,
made of the by
Imam Masahuni,
a Syrian scholar, died in 1930.
As far as I know, there's no English
translation. It's called Safwat Tafesir
Safwat
Tafesir,
which,
Imam al Saluni, he really is an eclectic
Tafesir. Eclectic. He brought different
sources. It interfered. He brought
Imam Tabari and
Imam al Sima Sha'i, which we'll talk about,
in a minute.
And then you have the Tasir al Rahi.
So Tasir by qualified opinion
It's how the next 6 or so are
qualified.
Although, certainly, there's also a bit of ribaya
that's
in these in these tafsir as well. So
the first one is called Alakashaf
Alakashaf.
And the author of this is Ibn
Armad Al Samachshari.
And he died 1144
of the common era. And he was actually
a.
He was a rationalist.
So theologically,
he's problematic
from our perspective,
from the perspective of Abu Simba.
Some even conclude that his Tasir is Madamun.
It should be rejected
because he deviates from the the mainstream opinions
when he comes to his Akeda.
But this is more of a syntactical
exegesis.
There's a lot of emphasis on the language,
linguistics of the Quran.
So he's looking at grammars, it is syntax,
it is balava, rhetoric.
Once in a while, he'll throw some
more atasily,
a pita into the mix. So one has
to be careful
when it comes to Keshev.
They're gonna say don't start your tafsir studies
with his book, but I would say that
most
people who study tafsir, they never even looked
at his book.
So that's just on linguistics,
less on.
And then you have Mafati or the late.
So the keys of the unseen,
also known as the Qasir al Kabir
by a great scholar of Ahlus Sunnah Faflodin
al Razi, Imam al Razi
It was a Persian exegist who died 1209,
Biladi.
Imam says he says in the
There's everything in this book except.
So it's very philosophical
exegesis.
So he looks at the relationship. One of
the things he does is he looks at
the relationship between the sua.
It's called I'm gonna ask that. Like, why
is this sura after this sua?
Or even between the ayaat,
which is now a cutting edge,
you know, Quran studies in Western Academy.
Right? You know, symmetrical structure and in in
internal
coherence
of the Suraj.
This is something that Imam Al Razi was
doing way back when that now people like
Raymond Faron and
Michelle Kuipers, Karl Ernst is doing and becoming
famous for doing,
you
know.
He also has a section on,
which are refutations.
So refutation
of, you know, heterodox,
or, you know, incorrect theologies
of the Jainia, you know, these different groups.
The,
the rationalists.
The,
the anthropomorphous.
Very long.
It's is
a 150 pages. It's
it's
a
150 pages.
The third one I wanted to mention is
called Anwaru Tunzil.
Anwaru Tunzil.
Imam Beid Dawi
Beid Dawi. He
died 1286,
Miladi.
This is important because it's really the recension
of Al Kashaf.
He basically corrected
Imam al Zemagshari's tafsir,
took out the,
the sort of Marquesia,
material,
and added additional material to counterbalance
and cash out.
So, you know,
this this one that you have a sunnah,
one of my teachers said,
he said, you know,
it just has a sort of there's a
there's a soft spot in our hearts for
it. This is such an incredible
work. We just don't wanna throw it together
completely.
We wanna take from the logistical aspect of
it and sort of downplay the
problematic aspects of this of this
theology. Number 4, I'll mention is.
And this is by Imam Al Alusi
Alusi from Daragh.
Imam Al Alusi, the more contemporary died 18
54 Miradi.
And here you have an emphasis on Sanad.
He incorporates a lot of mystical exegesis,
deep discussion of grammar, rhetoric,
astronomy,
philosophy,
mysticism.
And then the 5th one I'll mention is
called Tesira Jalalaim,
And this has been translated into English.
It's a very short it's kind of a
handbook. Some have
characterized it as a handbook of Tasira.
You know? Right? And it's called Jalalay because
the authors are
2 men named Jalal. Jalaludim al Mahadi, Jalaludim
Jalaluddin
al Mahadi,
Jalaluddin
So
to see that the 2 Jalals.
And so he died 15 05, so it's
16th century,
Maladi, Miladi.
He's been transferred.
You can also find this online.
An online source that I recommend is called
aditencia.com.
And usually, you know, you have to be
very, very careful about .coms
for reliable knowledge,
but this is a good website.
I've seen my teachers use it. I've asked
my teachers about this website,
and and they said that it's reliable.
So
you have the entire
have the email so you can see in
English
on this website.
Say it say it again.
At.com.
All one word.
So you don't even know. So,
And then there's a couple more in English.
I think even Abbas, but again, you have
to be careful with
that. Also translated.
You have and then in Arabic, you have
all of these classical Arabic tethoscis, all in
Arabic.
You know, so if you can access the
primary Arabic sources, then I
very much encourage you, recommend,
to see.com.
And then number 6 I want to mention
is called
Quran,
or sometimes called tafsir Al Kurtubi.
Imam
Al. Who's an Andalusian scholar. He died,
671,
so I don't have the Diwali date
for that,
but when would that be?
In 1400 or so.
So his,
his test data is focused on ship.
It's kind of moldy where he's focusing on
the cabin.
Okay.
As far as contemporary,
this is the last point we'll make for
tonight.
There's a beautiful tasir in English
called.
And I haven't seen it here. I saw
that in Saruman. That's it.
Mufti Mohammed Shafi'i.
And it's an eclectic Tasif. So modern day
Tasif, they tend to be eclectic, meaning they're
taking from different classical sources.
And then they're also giving some commentary as
to how
to make it relevant to our lives. Right?
So that's what he does.
He addresses some contemporary issues.
His test here is really a combination of
Bayan ul Quran
Bayan ul Quran, which is body scholar name.
By, Quran and also,
Tafim Al Quran
Tafim Al Quran
by Maududi,
which was written in Urdu.
So you have
for the Quran.
Do you have the study Quran
in English? I don't know if you're familiar
with that. It came out
maybe 2 years ago, the study.
I would use this with with caution.
You know, it's it's really a monumental achievement.
It took them 10 years
to finish the work.
It's basically
a very eclectic
compilation of tafesir from Sunni,
Sufi, and Shia, rationalist,
traditions.
But I would say and, you know, it's
a study of Quran. So there's something called
the study bible,
which is studied by Christians in college,
right? So I would not
recommend the study Quran to lay Muslims or
just like non Muslims.
Someone converts Islam until you read the study
of Quran.
Because
a lot of people don't understand that
many many ayaats
can be interpreted different ways
and there are difference of opinion between the
ornament.
So a lot of people don't don't really
process that very well. How could scholars have
2 different opinions about the same Ayah?
What does it mean? Nobody knows what it
means then.
Or they read something that just, you know,
is from a a Shia source, and they
don't know it because they don't know how
to interpret the sources.
So they'll go with that, and it'll be
problematic,
to their actually or potentially problematic.
And then also
the editors of the study Quran are perennialists,
which is a modern philosophy that believes that
that basically all religions are correct.
Right? And that
the Quran doesn't necessarily
criticize
trinitarian Christianity.
You know, so they have very strange ways
of interpreting
Well, that's a call in Falafa. So it
was not talking about the trinity.
It's talking about people who worship 3 gods.
Right? Or you know
It is stating of those who are blasphemed,
who say that God is the Messiah.
And then
one of their editors will say,
you know, Lucretians aren't saying that. They're not
saying God is the Messiah. They're saying the
Messiah is God.
You know? So what? What are you talking
about?
Is that what would you really think it's
talking about?
You know? So it's it's very strange.
So it's, you know, problematic at times. I
would be careful.
It's a perennialist hermeneutic. You know?
It's some have gone so far as to
call it kind of a Trojan horse.
You know something that you gotta bring into
your community and then sort of slowly attacks
you.
But like I said,
it's meant for
you know, college level students. That's why it's
called the study of Hora.
So, you know, my I teach that text
at Zaytuna
because the students that I'm teaching are college
students and, you know, they they have background
knowledge and they and they're forming their Athena,
and we go through the different sources
that are quoted in the study Quran. We
talk about the differences, so they know how
to navigate
the study Quran. If one doesn't know how
to navigate,
it's it's dangerous. It's like going into books
of hadith pouring into Sahib al Hayih,
just because you're Muslim and you can read
a little bit of Arabic. You're going to
make major errors in interpreting Hadith
because you don't know how to navigate. Even
if we think we do, we really don't.
Okay.
So that's that's all I wanted to say
inshallah
for tonight.
Oh, so why is it so late? We
started late.
It's almost 8:30.
So next week is our next our final
class, and we'll talk about
some other miscellaneous type of things like translation
of the Quran.
What's the best way to translate
the Quran? You can translate,
a history of Quran and translation,
history of non Muslim interaction with the Quran,
a a little bit of that. We'll look
at Ijazu Quran,
the miraculous nature of the Quran, Quran in
modern science.
We'll look at the Takhti, the challenge of
the Quran
to produce a surah like it.
Very important to understand the nature of the
Takhti.