ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Introduction to the Science of Tafsir of the Quran Foreword In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful By Sayyid Muhammad Rizvi The most tangible of miracles left by the (‘s) is the Qur`an. Al-Qur`an is the Divine revelation, which descended upon the Prophet’s blessed soul in a span of twenty-two years and few months. Muslims consider the Qur`an as the most important document for their faith.

They have given extreme importance to preserve, recite, memorize, and study the Qur`an. Gradually, different subjects emerged with the purpose of facilitating the process of studying the Qur`an: Ilmul Tajwid was devised to learn the proper recitation of the Qur`an; Hifz was invented as an art of committing the Qur`an to memory; and ’Ilmul Tafsir emerged as the science of exegesis of the Qur`an.

Among these relevant subjects, ’Ulumul Qur`an flowered as a science dealing with the Qur`an itself: the revelation and its reality; how, when and where it was revealed; how it transformed from an oral tradition to the written form; the issue of abrogation, its meaning and reality; its textual integrity and its protection from alteration; how was it complied, by whom and when.

These are questions that are discussed in ’Ulumul Qur`an; and as such, it is the foundation of sciences dealing with the Qur`an. This brief treatise deals with an important question in Ulumul Qur`an: the rules governing the interpretation of the Qur`an. It comes from the pen of Ayatullah Shaykh Ja’far Subhani, a leading Shi’i scholar of Qum, who is well-known for his expertise in Qur`anic studies and for writing a thematic exegesis of the Qur`an.