Chapters on the Foundations of Tafsir

I praise You, our Lord, possessor of majesty, for the countless blessings You have bestowed upon me. I ask You to bless my time and fill it with acts of obedience and good deeds.

I praise You, O You who guided me to tread this path and made me a servant of Your Noble Book. All praise is due to You at all times.

I praise You for the knowledge of this glorious Book You have granted me and for making its wisdom accessible to me in ways I never dreamed of. To You belong all praise, grace, and favor. You give to whom You will and withhold from whom You will.

I praise You, my Lord, for Your guidance in disseminating the knowledge You have bestowed upon me and for making it easy for me to document what I could from what You granted me.

I ask You to grant me success in completing my scholarly projects and to accept them with good acceptance.

And I send prayers and greetings upon Your noble Messenger, the master of all people, blessed in all worlds, who taught his nation its religion, leaving them on the clear path, and did not abandon them to others for the clarification of religion.

Then I follow with prayers and greetings upon the noble family and the great companions who carried the religion and spread it throughout the worlds, being the most sound in understanding and the most deserving in practicing and knowing the Book.

Thereafter:

Allah favored me by allowing the publication of this book in the year (1413 AH), and here I am, in the month of Dhu al-Hijjah of the year (1431 AH), re-typesetting the book anew, and adding some comments that do not deviate the book from its original form; for if I were to interfere with it by making alterations, it would change its essence. So I decided to leave it as it is, and perhaps Allah will facilitate for me the writing of another, larger book, in which I will place my additions concerning this glorious science.

Thanks and Appreciation:

I cannot miss this opportunity to thank everyone who helped me in producing this edition, and I particularly mention my dear brother Abdullah bin Muhayya Al-Shatwi, who reviewed it and added some helpful tables.

My work on this edition:

Firstly: I made sure to indicate the page numbers of the previous edition because it has been in circulation for over seventeen years. This helps the reader to cross-reference the pages of this edition with the previous one. I have placed them in brackets like this [].

Secondly: I have corrected some scientific issues as much as possible.

Thirdly: I made sure to cite references for the ideas I discussed in detail in my other books, as well as for what I found in other works.

Fourthly: After this introduction, I have listed the books published on the principles of Tafsir (exegesis) for the reader's benefit, and I will endeavor to arrange them by publication date.

And thereafter, I ask Allah to guide me to goodness wherever I may be, to benefit me and the reader with what is in this book, and to guide me to the straight path.

My Lord, forgive me, my parents, and my household, for You are All-Hearing, All-Responsive.