Class material needed

[Yaser Birjas]

Bismillah,

Ok, in order to make the class as comprehensive as possible, I would like some input from you guys.

If anybody knows of any books, material or links in English regarding the following topics:

Thematic Tafseer
Usool At-Tafseer (principles of Tafseer)
Orientalists writings on this topic

[SiBgha_z]

as salamu'alaykum warahmatullah,


If anybody knows of any books, material or links in English regarding the following topics:

Thematic Tafseer
Usool At-Tafseer (principles of Tafseer)
Orientalists writings on this topicAt ILF (http://www.islamiclearningfoundation.com/) in NY Shaykh Ibraheem Negm used, A Thematic Commentary on the Qur'an (http://islamicbookstore.com/b6506.html), for his class, "The Central Teachings of the Quran: A Thematic Study."

(It's actually cheaper (http://www.astrolabe.com/product/491/Thematic_Commentary_of_the_Qur'an.html) here)

[mnvk]

There's also Usool at-Tafseer (http://www.onlineislamicstore.com/b5833.html) by Bilal Philips and Uloom al-Qur'an (http://www.islamicbookstore.com/b4260.html) by Yasir Qadhi.

[UmA]

Abdullah Yusuf Ali in his translation of the Qur'an prefaces each surah and surah section with themes and poetic observations. Would these fall under the category of thematic tafseer material?

[aarij]

Bismillah,

Ok, in order to make the class as comprehensive as possible, I would like some input from you guys.

If anybody knows of any books, material or links in English regarding the following topics:

Thematic Tafseer
Usool At-Tafseer (principles of Tafseer)
Orientalists writings on this topic
Thematic Tafseer:

Descriptions of Paradise and Hell from the Qur’aan and Hadeeth
Abdullah Abdurrahman Al-Shimemeri
http://www.onlineislamicstore.com/b2939.html

Music and Singing in Light of the Qur'aan and the Sunnah (free online!)
Abu Bilal Mustafa al-Kanadi
http://members.tripod.com/oum_abdulaziz/music.html

AOU Thematic Tafseer Course Outline
Anwar Hajjaj
http://aou.edu/syllabus/EBP/EBC317.doc


Usool At-Tafseer:

Ulum Al-Qur'an: An Introduction to the Sciences of The Qur'an
by Ahmad Von Denffer
http://www.onlineislamicstore.com/b3587.html

An Introduction To The Principles of Tafseer
Ibn Taymiyyah
http://www.onlineislamicstore.com/b3500.html

An Introduction to the Sciences of the Qur'aan
Yasir Qadhi
http://www.onlineislamicstore.com/b4260.html

Usool at-Tafseer : The Methodology of Qur'aanic Explanation
Dr. Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips
http://www.onlineislamicstore.com/b5833.html


Orientalists writings on this topic:

The Qur'an and the Orientalists : An Examination of their Main Theories and Assumptions
Dr. Muhammad Mohar Ali
http://www.onlineislamicstore.com/b8984.html

[Hasan]

Usool At-Tafseer (principles of Tafseer) Here's a nice reference:

http://www.islamic-awareness.org/Quran/Tafseer/Ulum/

Also, for some content, you might want to research what's on people's minds at QuranJam.com (http://www.quranjam.com)

Wa Allahu a'lam.

[Abdullah~]

Bismillah
Asalamu alaykum,

I just saw a book at the masjid the other day by Muhammad Al-Ghazali, Thematic Commentary of the Qur'an, though I never read it.

It is 804 pp, and published by The International Institute of Islamic Thought, in English.

I looked at the table of contents and he goes surah by surah.

Asalamu alaykum

[hibahmac]

Bismillah
Asalamu alaykum,

I just saw a book at the masjid the other day by Muhammad Al-Ghazali, Thematic Commentary of the Qur'an, though I never read it.

It is 804 pp, and published by The International Institute of Islamic Thought, in English.

I looked at the table of contents and he goes surah by surah.

Asalamu alaykum
Wa 'alaykum salaam ~ I have had this one on my shelf for years; it's a good read, and a good resource to have. FYI, its original title is Al-Tafsir al-Mawdu3i, "published in three volumes. The IIIT translated and published the first two volumes separately in 1997 and 1999. The current volume incorporates all three volumes into one edition. (p. ix)

In the introduction, the late Shaykh Muhammad al-Ghazali states that there is one aspect of thematic commentary that he did not attempt in this work, which is "to identify the major themes of the Qur'an as a whole and discuss the issues and subjects it covers in light of those themes. I had made use of this feature in other writings of mine, published in Arabic, such as" Al-Ma7awir al-Khamsah li al-Qur'an al-Karim (Five Central Themes of the Qur'an) and NaTHarat fi al-Qur'an (Glimpses into the Qur'an). Surely, the study and understanding of the Qur'an can benefit from both approaches...," (p. xi) with the other approach being what he used in this work recommended in this thread.

He describes his approach here as "highlighting only those verses and passages that represent or enhance the features and the character of the main theme of the surah. This implicitly assumes that readers have to fill in the gaps and fit the rest of the surah into the overall picture themselves" (p. xi) with the intention of complementing and making mroe accesible the traditional methods and approaches.

He attributes his method to emulating "the excellent pioneering work of the late Shaykh Muhammad 3Abd Allah Darraz in his study of al-Baqarah, the longest chapter in the Qur'an." (p.x) ~ H

[Megan Wyatt]

I have enjoyed Maududi's tafsir on the Qur'an, for one reason in particular...it does link together the themes...where they seem so disconnected, he shows how the ayat are not random like it sometimes feels. And since his is a later work, it includes reflections on things relate to modern issues, like secularism, nationalism, atheism, etc.

It is available in English.

[Hasan]

Al-Ma7awir al-Khamsah li al-Qur'an al-Karim (Five Central Themes of the Qur'an)
Seems to me like that book would be an excellent reference for this seminar. As Ustaadh Muhammad describes it:

the fourth and final installment of our Tafseer seminars will be founded in doing tafseer revolving around a theme, i.e. Thematic Tafseer.

for example, let's say someone takes the issue of "Money", is it good, is it bad ... who knows? Let's go to the Quran and find out what it says about this THEME.

So, in a nutshell that's what this course is about.
A seminar on the five central themes of the Qur'an would be awesome, in sha Allah!

[ZBT]

Assalamu alaikum.

Sh. Yaser, based on the information gathered in this post, would you be able to recommend one single source which we can use to prepare for this class?

[Yaser Birjas]

Assalamu alaikum.

Sh. Yaser, based on the information gathered in this post, would you be able to recommend one single source which we can use to prepare for this class?

There are so many sources available in Arabic, and because the subject is still new area in Tafsir the outlines of it are not yet clear or final. Therefore, more discussions are being held over this subject and more studies are coming out in an attempt to complete and perfect this science of Tafsir.

I can hardly see any equivalent discussion made in English. So anything you can find in English that covers this subject might help insha'Allah.
There is one concern here. Most of the writings using Thematic Tafsir will be rational and based on the author's level of education and theme of interest. There might be lots of controversial issues that require careful scrutinizing.


And Allah knows best

[ZBT]

Shaykh, thank you for the reply.

I'll keep the points you mentioned in mind.

[ibnabeeomar]

this is one of the classes im really looking forward to seeing the gems for from the first time its taught so we can get a better taste of it inshallah :)

im really glad this subject is being taught, i've often felt that tafseer was one of the most important and underemphasized subjects for english speaking audiences.