[Tic Tac Took]

Difficult question for me.

I have said in another post some where and I'll admit it here. Mostly the tafaseer are multi volume works. A thirty volume work is not uncommon because of obvious reasons - there are thirty parts in a usual division of the book. The consequence for me is that I have not read even one of them completely.

Maulana Fazl-ur-Rahman Sahab Ginnori (DB) of Pakistan is an expert on Tafaseer. Once he gave a two part lecture on the recent trends in tafseer. After that some one asked the inevitable question : So which one tafseer will you recommend? He said that any answer to this question will lead to debate but people persisted. At that time he gave his choice - tafseer by Maulana Sahabbir Ahmed Uthmani. I suppose it should be available in English too for it is old enough and popular enough. But if you know Urdu then so much better. This used to be beautifully printed, in Urdu, by Saudi Qur'an Printing Complex till our dear friends managed to convince the authorities to do otherwise. It has been replaced by Urdu Tafseer of Maulana Junagarhi - I do not find that a distasteful tafseer but nothing like the earlier mentioned. Of course I have not read it full.

I too love In the Shade of Qur'an. Only lately I have managed to get some idea of what is wrong with Syed Qutb. Answer is nothing - he is perfectly alright, only he was living in very extreme times and he responded to them as a believer should. We do face extreme situations sometimes and some where. In some locations we are still doing that but not all of us. But if you have read In the Shade of Qur'an then the natural thing next is to get down to brass tacks. We got to be there out in the sun ploughing the field.

I am dragging the post because for last few days I have been getting the idea that I should finally start reading Ma'arif-ul-Qur'n by Mufti Shafi Sahab (RA) that I bought long back. That is the tafseer which gets most attention here at SF. I find it strange that brothers here suggest this to any new comer - sorry no one should suggest an eight volume tome to a first timer. Even Abdullah Yusuf Ali is bit lengthy for such people - a translation is sufficient for them.

I did have Maulana Maududi's Tafheem, in six volumes, but I got scared and I gave it to an institute belonging to Jama'at-e-Islami!

O sorry, I should recommend some thing, right? Well Dr Israr Ahmed is my answer. Most of the videos are there on YT. These are in Urdu. I wonder if English text is available.

(A few days back Dr Nadir Khan Sahan (DB), an elder I love, said that when the thing get stuck it is Bayan-ul-Qur'an, of Hazrat Thanwi(RA), that sorts out the things. I heard it is a difficult one so I have never turned my attention to it.)

I hooope I have said something useful.