Madarik al-Tanzil wa-Haqa'iq al-Ta'wil (Tafsir al-Nasafi)

Madarik al-Tanzil wa-Haqa'iq al-Ta'wil ("The Perceptions of Revelation and the Realities of Interpretation"), known as Tafsir al-Nasafi, is the Qur'an commentary of Abu al-Barakat Hafiz al-Din 'Abd Allah ibn Ahmad ibn Mahmud al-Nasafi (d. 710 AH). ^{3 1}

Al-Nasafi says that someone whose request he could not refuse asked him for "a middle-sized book of interpretation, combining the grammatical analyses and the readings, containing the subtleties of the sciences of rhetoric and allusion, adorned with the views of Ahl al-Sunna wa-al-Jama'a and free of the falsehoods of innovators and the misguided, neither tediously long nor deficiently short"; he hesitated out of caution, then began it and finished it in a short time, naming it Madarik al-Tanzil wa-Haqa'iq al-Ta'wil. ¹

The editor of the Dar Tahqiq al-Kitab edition says it is regarded as an abridgement of al-Zamakhshari's [[work/al-kashshaf|al-Kashshaf]] and al-Baydawi's [[work/anwar-al-tanzil|Anwar al-Tanzil]], except that it leaves out al-Kashshaf's Mu'tazili positions and follows Ahl al-Sunna wa-al-Jama'a; that it gives al-Zamakhshari's questions and answers not in his "if it is said… I say" format but woven into the explanation of the verse; and that it avoids al-Kashshaf's fabricated hadiths on the merits of the suras. ⁴ The reviewer, Ahmad Muhammad al-Fadil, holds that it is at root a distillation of al-Kashshaf only in grammar and rhetoric, and that al-Nasafi was no mere copyist but a critic who answers the Mu'tazila, al-Zamakhshari among them. ⁵

The editor sets out its material under headings: ⁶

• Readings: he gives many of the mass-transmitted readings, mostly the seven with their readers, and sometimes irregular ones; he refers to readers by labels — "Makki" for Ibn Kathir, "Madani" for Nafi', "Hijazi" for both, "Basri" for Abu 'Amr, "Kufi" for 'Asim, Hamza and al-Kisa'i, "'Iraqi" for the Basran and Kufans, "Shami" for Ibn 'Amir — and justifies readings grammatically, morphologically, lexically and rhetorically. ⁷
• Creed: he sets out the Sunni position on the vision of God, the creation of human acts and God's not being bound to do what is best, and answers opponents — for instance saying of "God has sealed their hearts" that the verse is proof against the Mu'tazila on "the best". ⁸ The reviewer considers the exposition of Sunni creed, especially that of the Maturidis, its most distinctive feature. ⁹
• Law: he discusses legal questions giving the Hanafi position, as in Abu Hanifa's use of a verse of al-Anfal to hold that an apostate who returns to Islam need not make up missed worship, sometimes adding other schools' views, with phrases such as "this is evidence for us" or "this is our view". ^{10 11}
• Legal theory: such as his denial that the contrary implication of a text is binding. ¹²
• Rhetoric: he brings out rhetorical points, since his guide was al-Kashshaf — for instance that in "wanting to collapse" (of the wall) "wanting" is borrowed for "being on the point of". ¹²

At the start of al-Fatiha he notes that the readers and jurists of Medina, Basra and Syria hold that the basmala is not a verse of al-Fatiha or of any sura but was written to separate suras and for blessing — the view of Abu Hanifa, hence its not being recited aloud by them — while the readers of Mecca and Kufa hold it to be a verse of al-Fatiha and of every sura, the view of al-Shafi'i and his followers, who therefore recite it aloud; he argues for his school from the hadith of Abu Hurayra (may God be pleased with him) "I have divided the prayer between Myself and My servant in two halves", and says that for them the basmala is a verse of the Qur'an revealed to separate the suras. ¹³

The editor names al-Kashshaf and Anwar al-Tanzil as its chief sources, and also Sibawayh's al-Kitab; the Ma'ani al-Qur'an of al-Farra', al-Akhfash and al-Zajjaj; al-Maturidi's Ta'wilat Ahl al-Sunna; al-Jawhari's al-Sihah; al-Sarakhsi's al-Mabsut; Abu al-Mu'in al-Nasafi's [[work/tabsirat-al-adilla|Tabsirat al-Adilla]]; al-Baquli's Kashf al-Mu'dilat; al-'Ukbari's al-Tibyan; and al-Nasafi's own al-Kafi and Kashf al-Asrar. ¹⁴

The reviewer says the tafsir has long been a set text in study circles, institutes and faculties of Islamic sciences; he studied it at the Fath Islamic Institute in Damascus, later taught it, and made it the set text at Sultan Mehmed Fatih University in Istanbul. ⁹ The Dar Tahqiq al-Kitab edition is based on three manuscripts in Turkey: Veliyüddin 254 in two volumes, the second copied in 821 AH; Feyzullah 231 (814 AH), the first half only; and Ragıp Paşa 229 (885 AH). ¹⁵

• Dar Tahqiq al-Kitab, Istanbul, 1st ed. 2018, edited by Muhammad Muhammad 'Ali Darwish and reviewed by Ahmad Muhammad al-Fadil, vol. 1. ¹⁶
• An edition by Marwan Muhammad al-Sha'ar, in a copy without title page. ¹⁷