'The Lights of Revelation
& the Secrets of Interpretation' -
Anwar al-Tanzil,
first Hizb of the Qur'an Commentary -
Tafsir al-Baydawi, Arabic / English, New,
* Large Paperback Book - 900 pages,
by Imam al-Baydawi,
Translated with Notes by Dr. Gibril Fouad al-Haddad,
Published by UBD Press & Beacon Books. RRP £44.95
Out of Stock
Description :
'The Lights of Revelation' is the colossal first English translation by the respected research scholar Shaykh Gibril Fouad al-Haddad of the first juz of the classical Qur'an commentary Tafsir al-Baydawi. This work contains parallel Arabic text, fully vowelised based on 13 manuscripts, 12 commentaries and 16 editions.
Imam al-Baydawi, may Allah be pleased with him, was a respected and prolific expert on Qur'anic exegesis and Islamic law, jurisprudence, and theology.
Extract from the Foreword :
''Sad to say due to a host of reasons, not least language barriers, the contemporary
Muslim knowledge of the classical works of tafsir is rather limited & their general
appreciation of this particular category of religious writings has suffered a decline.
Since many Western and secular-educated Muslims do not have knowledge of
Arabic they are unable to access the great works in Islam on exegesis of the
Qur'an, practically all of which are written in this language, even if they are aware
of their existence. In the light of the issues that we have raised in the foregoing
pages, and for many more reasons, Dr. Haddad's present work is most welcome.
Dr. Haddad is to be praised for undertaking the admirable task of critically editing
and rendering into English the first tenth of one of the most influential works of
tafsir in the history of Islam. The work in question, al-Baydawi's Anwar al-Tanzil
(''The Lights of Revelation''), which is also referred to as Tafsir al-Baydawi, is
noteworthy, first because of its literary and scholarly merits, and second because
of the eminence of the author. Al-Baydawi was a prolific scholar of the 13th-14th
century Islam, authoring works in the sciences of the shari'a like jurisprudence
(fiqh) and principles of jurisprudence (usul al-fiqh), dialectical theology (kalam),
Sufism and ethics (tasawwuf), grammar and epistemology.
Anwar al-Tanzil is important and significant, because of its fame and influence.
In Dr. Gibril Haddad's own estimation, this work ''became & remained for seven
centuries the most studied of all tafsirs, and it is to be regarded as ''the most
important commentary on the Qur'an in the history of Islam.'' The work won
praise during the author's own lifetime and invited ''glowing testimonies'' from
later scholars until modern times. Perhaps significantly as well was its use as a
textbook, especially in the madrasas (Islamic Seminaries) of Mamluk Egypt and
Ottoman Turkey.
To show its worldwide popularity Dr. Haddad refers to the textual evidences in
the form of abundant printed editions and commentaries & super-commentaries
written on it, samples of which he included in his book. In modern times and
equivalents, Tafsir al-Baydawi deserves to be treated as a best-seller of all times
ever since its publication seven centuries ago, one of the most cited books in the
field of exegesis (tafsir), and as a book that enjoys many excellent reviews. This
book was among the very first commentaries of the Qur'an to be published in
Europe in the nineteenth century.'' ---Prof. Datuk Dr. Osman bin Bakar, Brunei.
Imam al-Baydawi : He is Nasir al-Din Abu al-Khair 'Abdullah ibn 'Umar al-Baydawi also known as Baidawi, was an Islamic scholar, born in Fars, where his father was chief judge, in the time of the Atabek ruler Abu Bakr ibn Sa'd (1226–60CE). He himself became judge in Shiraz, and died in Tabriz about 1286. Many commentaries have been written on Imam al-Baydawi's work. He was also the author of several theological treatises. His major work is the commentary on the Qur'an entitled The Secrets of Revelation and The Secrets of Interpretation (Asrar ut-tanzil wa Asrar ut-ta'wil)'
Dr. Gibril Fouad Haddad is a Senior Assistant Professor at SOASCIS in Applied Comparative Tafsir. He was born in Beirut, Lebanon and studied in the UK, US, France, Lebanon and Syria. He holds a Doctorate from Kolej Universiti Insaniah, Kedah Darul Aman, Malaysia and a Ph.D. from Columbia University, New York where he was the recipient of several fellowships including one at the prestigious École Normale Supérieure in Paris, France. He also graduated summa cum laude from the New York University Latin and Greek Institute. Dr. Haddad spent nine years of study in Damascus, Syria (1997-2006) and has received ijaza (certificates) from over 150 shaykhs.
He has lectured on Qur’an, Hadith, Prophetic Biography (Sira) and Sufism in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, the US, UK, Sweden, Lebanon, Syria, Morocco, the Republic of South Africa and Mauritius. He is the author of over three dozen books, most recently the first critical edition and translation and first book-length study in English on the first Hizb of Tafsir al-Baydawi, a 900-page work to be published jointly by UBD Press and Beacon Books. Published works include The Integrated Encyclopedia of the Qur’an, The Encyclopedia of Hadith Forgeries, and The Muhammadan Light in the Qur’an and Hadith as well as hundreds of articles, most recently “Tropology and Inimitability: Ibn 'Ashur’s Theory of Tafsir in the Ten Prolegomena to al-Tahrir wal-Tanwir” and “Quietism and end-time reclusion in the Qur’an and Hadith: al-Nabulusi and his book Takmil al-nu'ut within the 'uzla genre” (forthcoming). Dr. Haddad was hailed in the inaugural edition of The 500 Most Influential Muslims in the World as “one of the clearest voices of traditional Islam in the West.” He is presently working on the first critical edition and translation of Ahmed Ziyaeddin al-Gumushanevi’s Hadith source-index entitled Ramuz al-Ahadith.
Table of Contents :
---Dedication to HM The Sultan of Brunei Darussalam,
---Epigraphs and Prayer,
---Title page of oldest known manuscript of Anwar al-Tanzil,
---Illustrations and Tables,
---Foreword by Prof. Dr. Osman bin Bakr,
---Acknowledgements,
---Abbreviations.
Introduction :
---Al-Baydawi and his Anwar al-Tanzil wa-Asrar al-Ta'wil in hermeneutical tradition,
---[I]. Biobibliography & Raison D'etre of the Present Work,
------Baydawi's Teachers and Chain of Transmission in shafi'i fiqh,
------Baydawi's Students,
------Baydawi's Tafsir and other works in law, legal theory, grammar and parsing, history, logic, sufis, poetry and astronomy,
------Purpose of the present work, the first full length study in English and first bilingual edition of Baydawi's Tafsir.
---[II]. Background, Methodology, Sources, Salient Features,
------Transmission, analysis and polysemy in Qur'anic exegesis,
------Passive anonymizers qila / ruwiya / quri'a for weak transmission,
------The connection of ahruf (dialects / idioms) with polysemy,
------Semantics and stylistic invariables (kulliyyat al-Qur'an),
------Baydawi's synthesis of Perso-Khurasanian hermeutics,
------Comparison of the Basran and Kufan schools of grammar,
------Three examples of Baydawi's succinct treatment of complex linguistic and theological questions ;
--------[a]. Is Allah an underived proper name or is it etymologically derived from ilah (deity),
--------[b]. Does Allah task one beyond one's capacity, such as tasking Abu Lahab and Abu Jahl to believe?
--------[c]. Naskh : The pre-Islamic viability and post Islamic inviability of Judaism, Christianity and other superceded faiths,
------Expert scholarly exertion (ijtihad) and other qualifications,
------The 22 disciplines of exegesis, including scientific training,
------Scientific and philosophical discourse in the Anwar : physiology, meteorology, geophysics, minerology, embryology, psychology, psycholinguistics, empiricism versus materialism,
------More on the exegete's musts : piety, orthodoxy and parsing,
------Baydawi's Main Sources :
--------[1]. Purging Zamakhshari's Kashshaf : Rebuttal of Mu'tazila and other sects,
--------[2]. al-Raghib's Mufradat Alfaz al-Qur'an and his Tafsir,
--------[3]. al-Razi's Mafatih al-Ghayb,
------Sufism in Anwar al-Tanzil : the vision of Allah; self-extinction; the pleasures of paradise reflects levels of knowledge of Allah in dunya; ''slaughter the cow of your ego''
---[III]. Reception of the Tafsir in the Umma and the West,
------The Anwar as a textbook and its scholastic marginalia,
------Epigones and Epitomes,
------Gradual disuse of the Anwar in the last 75 years,
------Recourse to Anwar al-Tanzil in middle Orientalism (17th - 18th C.), France, Germany, England, Holland and Rome,
------Western confusion over al-Baydawi's Tafsir.
---[IV]. Translation Issues and Backdrop to the Present Work,
------Post-Kemal Azhari-Salafi fatwas against Qur'an translation,
------Our rendering of the Magnificent Qur'an,
------Anwar al-Tanzil in pratial translation : Urdu, French, English,
------The present edition and translation of the Anwar,
---[V]. Sources Used and Our Isnad (Chain of Transmission),
------Manuscripts, editions and commentaries used in this work,
--------Manuscripts,
--------Editions,
--------Commentaries,
------Illustrative samples from the sources used,
------Our chain of transmission to Baydawi's Anwar al-Tanzil.
The First Hizb of the Qur'an (1:1 - 2:74): A Baydawian Rendering in English,
The First Hizb of al-Baydawi's Anwar al-Tanzil : Critical Edition of the Text and English Translation,
---Baydawi's Preamble,
---Tafsir is the chief science and foundation of all disciplines,
Surah al-Fatihah, (147 - 213),
Surah al Baqara, (214 - 679),
Appendix :
---Arabic-English glossary of technical terms,
---Glossary of persons and sects cited by al-Baydawi,
---Bibliography,
---Index of Sura References,
---Index of Hadiths and Early Reports,
---Index of Poetic Verses,
---General Index,
---Other Works by Gibril Fouad Haddad.
This work is ideal for study and research in particular for aspiring Islamic scholars.
Hardback available upon request at £79.95 (Publishers RRP).
More Qur'an categories.
Also see Tafsir and Tafsir Studies.
More Qur'anic Books.
Also see the Qur'anic Sciences.
*Dimensions : 23.4 x 15.6 x 5.2cm,
