An explanation for the speech of Allaah, the Bestower of abundant favours, which was facilitated by Allaah Himself, the Most Generous and Most Merciful
by al-Imaam 'Abdur-Rahmaan ibn Naasir as-Sa'dee
English translation along with review questions and occasional brief explanatory notes
Introductory Remarks
This page contains an English presentation of a relatively contemporary explanation of the Qur’aan that was originally written in Arabic. The Arabic original was written by the noteworthy and esteemed scholar of Islaam, ash-Shaykh ‘Abdur-Rahmaan ibn Naasir as-Sa‘dee, who lived from 12 Muharram 1307h until 23 Jumaadaa al-Aakhirah 1376h. In Gregorian years, those correspond to 8 September 1889 until 24 January 1957. The author, may Allaah have mercy upon him, wrote this explanation for the Qur’aan over the course of about two years, and he was thirty-five years old when he began. [See Tayseer al-Kareem ar-Rahmaan (pg. 7, ed. al-Luwayhiq. Mu’assasah ar-Risaalah Naashiroon, 2nd ed., 1431h/2010)].
Among the reasons we have chosen to attempt presenting this book in English during some of our reading sessions is the desire expressed by one of the author’s eminent students, that being the esteemed scholar ash-Shaykh ‘Abdullaah ibn ‘Abdil-‘Azeez ibn ‘Aqeel, who was a former head of the Supreme Judiciary Council in Saudi Arabia. He passed away on 8 Shawwaal 1432h (corresponding to 6 September 2011), may Allaah have mercy upon him. He had written introductions for two different critical editions of this Tafseer that were prepared for publication, and he concluded one of those introductions by saying, “For a long while, I had desired and prayed that Allaah, the Most Exalted, would let there be those who render this explanation of the Qur’aan into a foreign language – especially English – in the hopes that Allaah would bring about benefit from it in that way, since this book contains a most profound presentation of Islaam’s teachings. And all success and guidance ultimately come from Allaah.” [See Majmoo‘ Mu’allafaat (2/11)].
The Arabic title of this book which we will be presenting in English is “Tayseer al-Kareem ar-Rahmaan fee Tafseer Kalaam al-Mannaan”, and the way we would render the meaning of that title in English is: “An explanation for the speech of Allaah, the Bestower of abundant favours, which was facilitated by Allaah Himself, the Most Generous and Most Merciful”. An English translation of almost the entire Arabic original was issued under the title “Tafseer as-Sa‘di” in 2018 by the IIPH (International Islamic Publishing House) and we had initially planned to use that book for these reading sessions. However, as we went through the process of preparing the content for our sessions, we found that we had to make quite an amount of amendments to that existing translation after comparing it with the original Arabic text, and also based on our preferred techniques and standards for rendering works by scholars of Islaam from Arabic into English. Thus, in these sessions we will be reading our amended version of the aforementioned translation. The Arabic text we will rely on as our point of reference is the second volume in the official complete set of the author’s works published by Daar al-Maymaan (1432h/2011) under the title “Majmoo‘ Mu’allafaat ash-Shaykh al-‘Allaamah ‘Abdir-Rahmaan ibn Naasir as-Sa‘dee”. In the event that the author presents the explanation for particular passages of the Qur’aan, but the actual passages are not cited in full along with the explanation, we will fill in those passages in their respective places for the purpose of clarity while reading.
