Gratitude be to God that the seventh (eighth as per the new arrangement) volume of Tadabbur-i Qur’ān has now also been sent for printing. It is expected that before the year end, the glad tidings of its publication will reach its well-wishers. I am indebted to the publisher of the Book – my dear Majid Khawar. He also deserves praises from its readers because of multifarious problems he has published volumes five, six and seven in a very short time set in very high quality. He has also expressed the will and determination to publish this eighth and final volume in the remaining part of this year inshallāh. My heartfelt prayer that he succeeds in this plans and he is able to accomplish even bigger tasks. Though I am happy and contented on every decision of God; however, I do wish that before my death I am able to rejoice on seeing the whole tafsīr in its published form.
Most of the material of the eight volume too is ready by the grace of God. Even though I have remained continuously sick and was not able to write with full concentration and attention, however I have tried to do what best I could by writing in intervals. I also was careful that whatever I wrote in the circumstances would be in accordance with the standard of the book and the readers do not feel dissatisfied that an important discussion was left deficient in any way. I have already mentioned in the preface to volume six that there are a lot of difficulties in the last group of sūrahs because of the ultimate conciseness and utter brevity found in them. However, I have finished work till Sūrah Ghāshiyah (88). What remains will be complete in a few months if God grants me the opportunity of life and health to do so.
Here it is appropriate to direct the attention of the readers to a mischief spread by the Orientalists to ruin its divine arrangement and format. They have published copies of the Qur’ān in which the sūrahs are not arranged in the manner God and His Prophet (sws) did. They have rearranged them claiming that this new arrangement is more meaningful and better arranges the Book of God and rids it of the haphazard sequence which they think it had.
A similar state of affairs is being witnessed in some Muslim countries as well as they are publishing certain copies of the Qur’ān which are not on the conventional and well known mutawātir reading (the reading of Ḥafṣ). In these copies, lesser known and shādh readings have also been included.
I have tried to nip these evils in their buds in this tafsīr. People who will carefully read it, will inshāllāh remain protected from the mischief of the Orientalists, the Jews and extremist Shiites. The Qur’ān we have today has been arranged by God and His Prophet (sws). Like the Torah and Gospel, it is not based on history; this arrangement is based on philosophy of religion and the wisdom found in divine law. All the groups of the Qur’ān are well-knitted and linked to one another. Every sūrah is so deeply linked to the previous one that a slight change in its placement will create void in the meanings. While being governed by a central theme, all the verses of a sūrah are so closely connected to another that even if one verse is removed from its current place there is possibility that the sequence of the whole sūrah will be damaged.
The issue of the variant readings too has been resolved in this tafsīr. The conventional and mutawātir reading is the one written in this muṣḥaf which is in our hands today. As per this reading, the interpretation of each verse and word takes place in the light of the language of the Arabs, the context of the discourse and parallels of the Qur’ān in such a manner that no doubt remains. Thus I have interpreted every verse on the basis of this reading and I can say with full confidence that interpreting the Qur’ān on the basis of other readings is only possible at the expense of sacrificing its eloquence, purpose and wisdom.
I pray that God grants all of us the true understanding of His Book and protect us from the schemes of Satan.
(Rendered into English by Mr. Shehzad Saleem)
