al-Tafsir al-Muyassar

Al-Tafsir al-Muyassar ("The Simplified Commentary") is a concise commentary on the whole Qur'an issued by the King Fahd Complex for the Printing of the Holy Qur'an in Medina and prepared by a group of tafsir professors. ^{1 2} The Complex meant it as a plain Arabic commentary following the principles and sources of tafsir, to serve as the basis for its translations of the meanings of the Qur'an into the languages of the world's peoples, having found many shortcomings in the translations available. ^{3 2}

The introduction by the minister Salih ibn Abd al-Aziz Al al-Shaykh traces the stages of tafsir: transmitted exegesis, whose chief works include al-Tabari's Jami' al-Bayan, al-Baghawi's Ma'alim al-Tanzil and Ibn Kathir's commentary; then commentaries dominated by personal reasoning, where the jurist piles up legal questions, the historian tells stories, the grammarian displays grammar and the rhetorician shows the Qur'an's rhetorical inimitability, some of their authors Sunni and some not. ⁴ It holds that a concise commentary on the method of the early generations, in brief and easy wording that makes the Qur'an's meanings clear to ordinary people, was badly needed. ³

A group of tafsir professors was chosen to draft it under rules that include: explaining the verses according to the creed of the early generations; putting sound transmitted exegesis first; keeping to the sound or most preponderant view; bringing out the Qur'an's guidance and the aims of the law; brief, easy wording that explains rare words; giving the verse's meaning directly without reports unless needed; following the reading of Hafs from Asim; avoiding variant readings, grammar, morphology, parsing and rhetoric; fitting the margin of the Medina Mushaf; and, since it would be translated, avoiding terms that cannot be translated. ^{2 5}

The professors' draft was reviewed by a committee at the Complex and then by two committees at the Ministry of Islamic Affairs in Riyadh, and a first edition was printed in several sizes. ⁵ Comments on it then reached the ministry and the Complex, which halted reprinting; a committee studied the comments and adopted the good ones, reviewed recurring words such as 'affirmation' (tasdiq), 'denial' (juhud) and 'certainty' for their bearing on the creed of the early generations, reviewed the meanings of the divine names and attributes, and made parallel words consistent throughout. ^{5 6} It changed the address 'O Muhammad' in some glosses to 'O Messenger' or 'O Prophet' according to context, except in eleven places that report the words of those who did not accept his prophethood. ⁶ The second, revised and enlarged edition then appeared in 1430 AH. ^{7 6}

In the verse of Yunus it glosses the rising over the Throne as "that is, He rose high and ascended", then "a rising befitting His majesty and greatness", and likewise in Surat Taha; see Yunus 3 and Taha 5. ^{8 9} In the verse of the pledge in Surat al-Fath it keeps the mention of the hand as it stands and adds that He is with them, hearing their words, seeing where they are and knowing their hearts; see al-Fath 10. ¹⁰ For a comparison with Tafsir al-Jalalayn on the same verses, see How does Tafsir al-Jalalayn explain the verses on the divine attributes?.