What is Tafsir’s meaning?

The Quran is the holy book of Islam which was descended on Prophet Mohammed to us as a guide to the whole humanity. Considered to be a book in the first place just like any other book in some aspects, the Quran needs to be contemplated. The word “Tafsir” is literally the “meaning” of the Quran, thus, the “Tafsir meaning” is the meaning of the Quran. A “Tafsir” includes all that a Muslim need to find the elaborations, the reason, the duration, the wisdom behind any verse that God has conveyed to us in his Holy book.

The history of Tafsir:

“Tafsir” of the Quran did not start until very late, it started after the initiation of writing down and recording the “Hadeeths” which are the words of Prophet Mohamed himself, PBUH, and the “Quran” itself. Initially, the “Tafsir” of the Quran was not that organized as we see right now, yet as time passes the more and more organized it became, explaining every verse and every word by turn and in order. Islamic studies’ scientists became aware of the evolution and the essence of organizing this crucial branch of science, thus it became a duty of scientists to exert more effort to redo it.

Who wrote the Tafsir in specific?

Multitudinous scientists as “Ibn Mageh”, and many more, have been one of the brilliant, well-known people elaborating the Quran and introducing the “Tafsir” science carrying and copying all what Prophet Mohamed, and the 4 leaders of the Islam, and Alsahabah which are the companions of Prophet Mohamed who witnessed this era and every other detail of the beginning of the Islam, Conveying what the Prophet and all the other trusted people has witnessed, all this has been delivered about the Tafsir. In conclusion, the Tafsir of the Quran is minute steps toward the recording of what Allah means in his verses and that depends on the words of the Prophet Mohamed and others who are known to be trustworthy and well known for honesty back then. The Tafsir of the Quran depends on entire sciences such as grammar, extensive knowledge for the meaning of the complex vocabulary. Apparently, to explain and illustrate such miraculous words of Allah, the Muslim to be fully aware of the essential sciences needed. Thus, there is no specific person who has written the entire “Tafsir” of the Quran since it is a subjective aspect of the Quran, in other words, it does not depend on strict rules and regulations like the Quran which has been Holy by which a person cannot change anything within it.

Why do we need the Tafsir? Why is it essential?

In the very beginning, the first people who became Muslims needed to be aware of what Allah is saying to us, and what he is ordering us to do, as result, Muslims required such vital science which is the Tafsir of the Quran, depending on what has been heard from the Prophet, from entrusted people around him generation after generation. Nonetheless, what differed in the Tafsir in the very early beginning from now, is the diversity and the variety of the people who received the message of Allah. To fatherly explains, the foremost Muslims needed to stress more on the regulations of Islam. However, nowadays the more people who embrace the Islamic religion, the harder it is to keep our Islamic legacy from all the doubts and turbulence, and the more we need to fetch the answers to the questions that arise in these Muslim’s minds.

Why the Quran did not have its own Tafsir?

An ongoing question that may arise in quite a large number of people is that why do we need to make or read or learn a tafsir for the Quran which is made by human beings and not by Allah just like the Quran. Simply, it may be because Islam depends and rely on the contemplation and deliberation of everything which Allah has made for us. Another reason is that Prophet Mohamed had the potential to explain every word that God has meant in his Holy book. What is more, to say is the need for diversity in the explanation and the Tafsir of the Quran is to cope with the concurrent variation and changes the Islamic society is facing such as the wrong misconceptions about it and many other things.

In a nutshell:

The Tafsir meaning is a whole branch of Islamic science that includes every aspect to fully apprehend the Quran from all its aspects, starting from the literal meaning of a word, why this word is being used in specific and why not use other words and so on.