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Topic Name: Introduction Time Stamp: Day 5 - Video 5 Lesson Name: Resources and Principles of Tafsir

This video provides an overview of the principles of tafsir and coherence within surahs. It divides Surah Al-Kahf into 8 sections and lists numerous scholarly books and resources used in the tafsir series. The video emphasizes that every surah has a unique organization and coherence, and discusses the relationship between sections within Surah Al-Kahf and how they relate back to the opening sermons. A disclaimer is also provided about maintaining respect for scholars while being open to criticism of ideas.

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Saqib Mohammed
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202 views4 pages

Topic Name: Introduction Time Stamp: Day 5 - Video 5 Lesson Name: Resources and Principles of Tafsir

This video provides an overview of the principles of tafsir and coherence within surahs. It divides Surah Al-Kahf into 8 sections and lists numerous scholarly books and resources used in the tafsir series. The video emphasizes that every surah has a unique organization and coherence, and discusses the relationship between sections within Surah Al-Kahf and how they relate back to the opening sermons. A disclaimer is also provided about maintaining respect for scholars while being open to criticism of ideas.

Uploaded by

Saqib Mohammed
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Topic Name: Introduction

Time Stamp: Day 5 – Video 5


Lesson Name: Resources and Principles of Tafsir

DESCRIPTION
This video touches on the fundamental principles of coherence within a surah, a brief overview
of the 8 different sections that Surat Al-Kahf is divided into and a list of a number of books and
resources from which the tafsir of this series was taken.

DISCLAIMER (from Ustadh Nouman): “I may be critical of some things that some scholars say
in some occasions in their writings. But that doesn’t mean I’m ever critical of the scholars
themselves. I hold them in very high esteem. Even if I find something that is utterly ridiculous, I
still td decades if not even half or all of their lives studying this deen in way more intensity than
you and I ever will. So even if we find something kind of strange, when you’re reading the
tafseer of surah kahf you’ll find some scholars debating the color of the dog that is mentioned in
surah Kahf that is found in classical tafseers. This doesn’t take away from any of the great stuff
that they do. I do not want you to have a dismissive attitude. The ummah in our times has an
imbalance. On one hand we have this attitude that scholars are sacred, that they cannot be
criticized under any circumstance and we attribute the more knowledge someone has, the more
righteous they are. Which is not actually a real equation at all. You could be extremely
knowledgeable and still be a really bad human being. At the same time, we are not western
academics who actually look at all human beings as being corrupt. And they must have had an
alternative agenda, so they begin with the assumption that human beings cannot possibly be
good. In other words, they superimpose some of their own psychological issues on to the
people they study. But a balanced view is that we take the good from the people of the past, we
are open to criticizing if the ideas they present don’t add up. It’s ok we can discuss them openly.
But that doesn’t take away our respect for them. They are still Muslims, they are still scholars,
and they are still people who serve the deen. We have to assume they are much better people
than we are ourselves. We don’t glorify them on the one extreme. But we don’t leave them as
open targets on the other extreme. We have to find that balance in between. I hope that through
these discussions one of the things you are appreciating is the respect for that balance.

Fundamental Principles of Coherence within Surahs (continued from Lesson 2)


1. Every Surah is a unified whole.
a. A surah is a division made by Allah (swt) of a set of His ayaat
b. It is one unit
c. You cannot call a Surah a Chapter
i. Saying 114 Chapters is incorrect.
ii. What is the difference between a Surah and a chapter?
1. Surah:​ outer walls of a city alluding to the fact that lots of things
are happening inside, not just one thing. It’s not a monolithic thing.
Not just schools, but hospitals and homes and all these other
services.
2. Chapters​ are usually about one subject. You give it a heading and
everything about that heading. The heading tells you everything
there is to know about a chapter.
iii. How are Surahs named?
1. The names we have of the Surahs are actually nicknames. They
are ways by which the Surahs are remembered by the
Companions or even by the Prophet (SAWS). They are not official
names, necessarily. But they are names by which they got
popularized.
2. Sometimes Companions would call a Surah by its first ayah
because it would remind them of the rest of the Surah.
3. This is why some Surahs have multiple names.
4. Some surahs were explicitly named by the Prophet (SAWS) and
he talked about their names. But even then you could say that he
is making reference to them for the benefit of the Companions
who think of them by the distinctive term that defines those
Surahs.
5. The names are just something that reminds you of the Surah,
nothing like a heading of a chapter.
2. Every Surah has its own unique organization.
3. You cannot conclusively say, especially about long Surahs, that they have just one
theme or just one topic.
a. Everything is working with everything else in cohesion
b. Same reason why some surahs don’t have just one official name
c. There will be multiple lessons, multiple elements of guidance, multiple wisdoms
4. There is no formula for how a Surah is organized
a. Organization of each Surah is unique
b. When figuring out the layout of a Surah you have to start from scratch and go
from the beginning
c. The easiest thing to find is the organization of short Surahs. The trouble is in the
bigger Surahs
5. 3 types of relationship with a surah
a. Its relationship with preceding Surah
b. Its relationship with the following Surah
c. It’s relationship within a Surah

Applied to Surah al-Kahf: 8 distinct sections


Section 1.​ Khutba from Allah (swt)- “‫َﺠ َﻌﻞ ﻟﱠ ُﻪ ِﻋ َﻮ ًﺟﺎ‬
ْ ‫ﺎب َوَﻟ ْﻢ ﯾ‬
َ ‫ٰ َﻋﺒِْﺪ ِه ْاﻟ ِﻜَﺘ‬
‫ﻧﺰ َل َﻋَﻠﻰ‬
َ َ‫ﷲ اﻟﱠِﺬي أ‬
ِ‫ ْاﻟ َﺤ ْﻤُﺪ ِﱠ‬...” ayahs 1-9 is a
sermon from Allah (swt) giving us good news and warning.

Section 2.​ Story of the people of the Cave- ayahs 10-26

Section 3.​ Ayah’s 27-31. Second khutbah from Allah. The first khutbah that Allah gives in the
beginning of the Surah is directly connected to this section. Re-iterating and re-enforcing.

Section 4.​ The story of the two gardeners.

Section 5.​ Third sermon from Allah (swt) Ayahs 45-59 (longer sermon).

Section 6.​ Story of Musa and Khidr


No sermon in between

Section 7.​ Story of Dhul Qarnayn


These 2 stories (section 6 and 7) are structurally similar because there are 3 stops in Musa’s
story and 3 stops in Dhul Qarnayn’s story

Section 8.​ Last sermon of Allah (swt). Section 5 sermon and this last sermon have a lot of
parallels just like the first and second sermons had a lot of parallels.

The 3rd sermon when it open it reminds you of the summary of the first and second sermons.
So you don’t go on to the 3rd sermon before the first and second are summarized.

The final sermon concludes with where the Surah began. So it takes you back all the way to the
beginning.

Sources on Coherence
1. Ustadh Nouman’s own observations
2. “‫( ”ﺗﺪﺑﺮ اﻟﻘﺮان‬Tadabbur al Quran) by Amin Ahsan Islahi- in Urdu only
a. 2 volumes have been translated- “Pondering over the Quran” by Islahi
3. “The Outwardly Structure of Quranic Surahs” - Khalil ur Rahman Chishti- in Urdu
4. “‫( ”ﻧﻈﻢ اﻟﻘﺮآن‬Nidham al Quran) by Hamiduddin Farahi
a. He passed away before he could finish the whole Quran
b. Source 2, Islahi, is the student of Farahi
5. “‫( ”ﺑﯿﺎن اﻟﻨﻈﻢ ﻓﻲ ﺗﺮﺗﯿﺐ اﻟﺴﻮر‬Bayan alNadhm fee Tarteeb al Suwar) by Farooq al-Zayn
a. modern work, 3 volumes
b. one liners on how a few ayahs are connected to the next ayaat
i. he shows you the flow of the text
6. “‫( ”ﻧﻈﻢ اﻟﺪرر ﻓﻲ ﺗﻨﺎﺳﺐ اﻵﯾﺎت واﻟﺴﻮر‬Nadhm al Dorar fee Tanaasub al Ayaat wal Suwar) by
al-Biqa’i
a. classical scholar, 8th century, very classical Arabic
b. he shows you how everything is connected to everything within the Quran
7. A Contemporary Approach to a Veiled Text by Neal Robinson
a. orientalist
b. this book is written for those that are studying Islam in the West
8. Consonants in the Quran- Professor Abdul Raof
a. at Leeds University, UK
b. wrote the only book on rhetoric ever written in English- called “Arabic Rhetoric: A
Pragmatic Analysis”
9. Textual Relations in the Quran by Aisha al-Awab
10. “‫( ”ﻣﻮﺳﻮﻋﺔ اﻟﺘﻔﺴﯿﺮ اﻟﻤﻮﺿﻮﻋﻲ‬Mawsoo’at al Tafseer al Mawdoo’i)- commissioned 8 PhD’s (by
Qatari Government) to work on a thematic tafseer of the Quran, the structure of the
surah, the context the wisdom, etc

Sources of Ayah by Ayah- Root Analysis


1. Al-Qutoof Min Lughat Al-Qur’an, Mu’jam Alfath Wa Tarakib Lughawiyyah Min Al-Qur’an
Al-Karim. (Al Qutoof, A Dictionary of Linguistic Terms and Structures from the Holy
Koran) by Mohamed Mikati, Mohamad Zuhri Ma’sarani & Abdallah Ahmad Al Dandashi
a. summary of what all the other scholars talked about to what is most pertinent to
what you need for the study of the Quran, summarized root analysis of the words
2. Llisaan al Arab
3. Lanes lexicon- easily available online
4. Verbal Idioms of the Quran- on the figures of speech used in the Quran- written by
Professor Mustansir Meer - studied Arabic for about 20 years

Grammar and Rhetoric Sources


1. “‫ ”اﻹﻋﺮاب اﻟﻤﻔﺼﻞ‬- detailed grammatical analysis books
2. “‫‘( ”إﻋﺮاب اﻟﻘﺮآن‬i’rab al Quran)
3. Tafsir.com- there’s a grammar section- AlNohaas
4. Al-Kashaaf by Al-Zamakhshari
5. Al-Razi- a lot of linguistic analysis
6. Books of Dr. Fadel Saleh Samarai- on linguistic benefits of the ayahs

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