The Wonders of Interpretation by Ibn al-Qayyim

Author's name: Imam Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya

Collected and narrated by Yasra Al-Sayed Ahmed

Reviewed and arranged by Saleh Ahmed Al Shami

Introduction to the Second Edition

In the name of God, the most gracious, the most merciful

Praise be to God, Lord of the Worlds, with good and blessed praise, and the best of prayers and most perfect peace be upon the one sent as a mercy to the Worlds, our Master Muhammad, and upon all his family and companions.

And then:

Imam Ibn al-Qayyim - may Allah have mercy on him - is one of the most prolific Muslim scholars. His writings covered a wide range of subjects. He had a significant role in interpreting the Holy Quran, but he never wrote a book on the subject. The verses he interpreted were found in his many books. Sometimes the research required an interpretation of a particular verse, sometimes part of a verse, or several verses. Thus, the interpretation came incidentally and was not intended to be so.

Except in the interpretation of “Al-Mu’awwidhatayn,” where he intended to do so, so he put a clear title for the interpretation of “Al-Mu’awwidhatayn” and discussed their explanation in detail. . . He concluded that by saying:

This is what God has blessed us with in terms of speaking about some of the secrets of these two Surahs. Praise be to God that He helps with an interpretation of this type, for that is not difficult for God. Praise be to God, Lord of the Worlds.

He said the same at the end of his commentary on Surat Al-Kafirun. He did not intend to interpret it, but rather he spoke about it during his discussion of “what” in the Almighty’s saying: “I do not worship what you worship.”

However, what he explained of the noble verses is a lot, and Professor Sheikh Bakr Abu Zaid estimated it at five volumes, saying:

His writings on various parts of the Quran are found in his printed books, which appear to be in about five volumes based on tracing. Sheikh Muhammad Uwais al-Nadwi compiled what he had discovered into a single volume and titled it: The Valuable Commentary of Imam Ibn al-Qayyim.

It is a commendable work, but it did not complete or even come close to it (1).

God Almighty has facilitated for Professor Sheikh Yasser Al-Sayed Muhammad the collection of the interpretation contained in thirty-two books - which are the printed books - of the books of Imam Ibn Al-Qayyim, which up to now number nearly fifty volumes.

This collection was printed by Dar Ibn al-Jawzi and issued in five volumes under the title “Bada’i’ al-Tafsir.” N) Mu’abbalha (Maslaqa) Professor Saad bin Fawaz al-Sumail, the owner of the publishing house, visited me and told me about his desire to review and revise the book. This was in preparation for reprinting it after the first edition sold out. I saw it as my duty to fulfill his request, considering this work as part of the project that I have come a long way from: Approximating the Heritage of Imam Ibn al-Qayyim, of which fifteen books have been published. I can, after completing the work, summarize my work in the following points:

1 - Correcting the texts and correcting the errors in them, which are many. It was necessary to refer to the original sources that are the references for these texts.

2- To clarify the texts from what is ambiguous about them. Ibn al-Qayyim, may God have mercy on him, did not intend to interpret these verses that were collected, but rather he dealt with them in passing in the context in which they appeared. They are a sentence in a text that is connected to what comes before and after it.

It seems that Sheikh Yasser's keenness to be faithful in conveying the text led him to cut it out - as is - which explains to us the extreme strangeness that the reader finds when he returns to many of the verses, where he is confronted with incomprehensible speech. . He may find this at the end of the text, where he finds himself faced with speech that has no connection to the interpreted text.

In view of this situation, it was necessary to make an effort to free the text from what was mingled with it, either at the beginning or at the end, or both, by limiting oneself to the interpreted text so that the reader would not be confused.

God Almighty made this easy for me, while being very careful not to interfere in the text. It was merely a matter of using one’s mind to understand the text, identifying the key points of the speech, and separating the text from what is adjacent to it.

3- However, this effort was not useful in dealing with some texts, due to their strong connection to what came before and after them, so it was necessary to resort to adding some words that would inform the reader of the context in which the explanation came, and what I added of one or more words I placed within brackets [ ] in commitment to the faithfulness of preserving the text.

4- In contrast, some texts were truncated, either from the beginning or the end, such that the speech became incomprehensible. It was necessary to complete these texts by referring to their origins. I said to Miya (There is no shame in it, six, that the grill.

5 - Many of the texts were transferred as they are from their originals with their various titles and chapters. This is widespread throughout the book from beginning to end. The first thing we encounter is what relates to Surat Al-Fatihah, where pages 7-122 of the first part of Madarij Al-Salikeen were transferred as they are. In Surat Al-Baqarah, we find titles such as “Satan’s Playing with the Jews”... “The Obligation to Follow the Companions.” And so the topics came as they are in their originals?! In this case, it was necessary to make an effort to extract what relates to the interpretation.

6- During the interpretation of some verses, a “digression” was mentioned. This digression, in most cases, is related to the research in which the verse came, so it is a digression with respect to the verse, not to the research, and it is related. In this case, it must be deleted. As for the proportional digressions that are...

When interpreting the verse, I prove it, and sometimes I transfer it to the margin.

7- Since the compilation was done from multiple books, some verses received a generous share of interpretations, as their explanation was repeated in more than one book. These texts explaining a single verse may reach four or five, so it was necessary to study these texts. If they focused on one topic, I limited myself to the most comprehensive text and meaning. If each text touched on an aspect not touched by the other, I included them all, after arranging them according to their priority in dealing with the interpreted text... The goal of this was to get rid of repetition in order to save the reader time. Naifia, and the texts often came out identical.

8- In some surahs, the order of the verses was not taken into account according to their occurrence in the surah, so I worked to adhere to that, and as a result, more than forty texts were moved from their places to where they should be.

9 - The hadiths were authenticated by mentioning the book and the chapter, which made the footnotes long. So I decided to limit myself to mentioning the hadith number, in relation to the two Sahihs or one of them, as this is easier for the reader.

10- On rare occasions, Imam Ibn al-Qayyim would address two verses from the two surahs with one interpretation, so I saw that it was preferable to refer in the second verse to the first verse where the interpretations were mentioned.

12 - The method of presenting texts has been unified. The text of the verse being explained is preceded by the phrase "God Almighty says," followed by the explanation, with the exception of Al-Fatihah and Al-Mu'awwidhat.

As for Al-Fatihah, we do not find an interpretation of it in the traditional sense by Imam Ibn Al-Qayyim, despite the many texts that have been transmitted about it.

So I decided to choose the closest texts to be an interpretation, and I gathered the rest of the material in chapters, each of which deals with a side of it, after it was in the first edition under nearly seventy. As for the two Mu’awwidhat, we saw that the author intended to interpret them, and in view of the many ideas presented in the explanation, I decided to put side headings, which would make it easier for the reader to find what he wanted, and I did not interfere in the chapters and divisions that the author put in place.

12 - I have placed three small stars between each two verses to make it easier for the reader to find the verse he/she is looking for. If the interpretation of a verse is long and covers multiple topics, I place a separator between these topics, consisting of three small squares.

13 - The first edition was full of long texts, some of which were two pages or more long, which was tiring for the reader. So I decided to divide these texts into paragraphs, as this would be more relaxing for the eye and aid in understanding.

14 - More than one hundred texts have been added, most of them in the interpretation of verses that were not explained in the first edition, and some of them in the completion of the interpretation of verses that were previously explained, and each one has been placed where it should be.

15- I chose for the book an introduction from the author’s words that is appropriate for its subject. And after that: This is what Allah has facilitated in reviewing this valuable book, hoping that I have contributed to bringing the legacy of this Imam closer to the honorable reader, saving him effort and time. And Allah is responsible for making our deeds sincere for Him, for He is the best of those who are responsible. May God’s prayers and peace be upon our master Muhammad and his family and companions, and our final supplication is that all praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds.

Shawwal 1426 AH

11/7/2005

And his books

Saleh Ahmed Al-Shami