An Anthology of Qurʾanic Commentaries: Volume 1: On the Nature of the Divine, edited by Feras Hamza and Sajjad Rizvi with Farhana Mayer, (New York: Oxford University Press in association with The Institute of Ismaili Studies (original) (raw)
This book provides a new window onto the vast intellectual and hermeneutic diversity of the Islamic learned tradition and its value cannot be overestimated. The object is to present in English translation the exegesis of the Qurʾān from a wide variety of Muslim authors (twenty in all) over the 12-13 centuries of the history of tafsīr. (The considerable and deft translation work is camouflaged by the official bibliographic information from the title page where the translators are listed as "editors". This is much too modest.) Most of these works are in Arabic, one is in Persian. It is envisaged as the first of several similar volumes under the general title Anthology of Qurʾanic Commentaries. For the present volume, the topic has been narrowed-if such is the correct term-to the general problem of the Nature of the Divine. The editors and translators have had to deal with innumerable methodological problems besetting their wish to present in English an apt and accurate reflection of the exegetical tradition in Islam. Their solution is a good one. Because of the large amount of duplication and repetition in the genre, both within discrete works and between authors and commentaries from generation to generation, it is simply not feasible to attempt a complete translation of the exegesis of every pertinent verse within this general problematic. Indeed, the first impossible problem would be to "disqualify" a verse because of lack of pertinence: each verse and each word of the Qurʾān implies and invokes all the others. So, the editors have chosen six of the most frequently quoted and beloved āyas of the Qurʾān, devoted a chapter to each, and presented, in chronological order, translations from the chosen scholars. The verses are: Q 2:115 on God's omnipresence; Q 2:255, the celebrated Throne Verse; Q 6:12, on God's self-imposed obligation to be merciful; Q 24:35, the Light Verse; Q 54:49, God has created all things according to a specific measure; Q 112:1-4, the sūra of Sincerity or Oneness. Such a selection bespeaks deep familiarity with the Qurʾān and mastery of the Islamic exegetical tradition. It is no easy task to choose a mere six from the over 6.000 verses. But these remarkable āyas have provided the history of tafsīr with much
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