introduction

" Verily this Qur'an doth guide to that which is most right (or stable) (to run societies), and giveth the glad tidings to the believers who work deeds of righteousness, that they shall have a magnificent reward "

(suraal-'asra, no. 17, verse 9).

" We  have sent down to thee the book explaining all things, a guide, a Mercy, and Glad Tidings to Muslims," (Sura An-Nahl, No. 16, verse 89).
" when those come to thee who believe in our signs, say: .
peace be on you: Your Lord hath inscribed for Himself (the rule of) Mercy; verily, if any of you did evil in ignorance, and thereafter repented, and amended (his conduct), lo! he is oft-forgiving, most merciful " (sura al-an.
am, no. 6, verse 54).
the collection of all the messages or revelations that prophet muhammad (p.b.u.h.) received is called qur'an. the holy qur'an is the .
text-book ' of islam. all the doctrines, principals, laws, commandments and prohibitions of islam are enshrined in the qur'an.
it was through the qur'an and muhammad mustafa (p.b.u.h.) that the message of allah (s.w.t.) to mankind was completed, and through the inspired commentary of ahlul-bait, religion was perfected.
in this century of research and scientific progression of the computer, endeavours for the conquest of space, the finding of new stars and galaxies of even more than 50 million light years away from us by modern instruments and the efforts of astronomers, and the faster means of communication have set in motion such rapid conveyances of men and material, which were far beyond the imagination of the former generations of the human race and which causes a vital change and exchange of thoughts and religious ideology, the light of the qur'an and islam is penetrating all curtains of every kind and is illuminating many individuals' hearts in nearly all parts of the world, inspite of heavy barriers and careful controls and religious interrogation exerted by not only many governments of non-muslim nations, but also in some muslim countries against their believing people, especially during the years after the islamic revolution of iran.
the effective influence of the light of truth together with the speed in the movement of the age has brought forth a more vital change and exchange of thought and religious ideology in connection with the holy qur'an. in regard to this, we refer to what the messenger of allah (p.b.u.h.) has said about it: "...when afflictions surround you like the dark night, refer to the qur'an, because, it is an intercessor whose intercession is accepted. it reports the evils (of people) which will be confirmed. it leads the person to heaven who puts it in front of himself (follows it);and he who puts it behind himself (neglects it) will be driven to Hell. This very Qur'an is the best guide to the best ways. It is a book in which there are useful explanations, statements and gaining (of goals). it is the separator (of right and wrong)..." (usul-i-kafi, vol. 2, p. 599).
to recite the qur'an, obviously, those people whose language is not arabic and know english,at first, refer to the holy book in english, because this is an international language and it is possible for all nations with any native language, to read and understand it in English. As far as we know, there are more than 50 different english translations of the qur'an available in iran, alone, and, probably some others can be found, besides them, in libraries (and homes) throughout the world.
this makes it easy for the lovers of truth to receive the knowledge of the holy qur'an and islamic ideology, through the medium of english, which formerly was acquired only directly by the arabic and persian languages.
but, a fact should be mentioned here that although the qur'an is, on the whole, an easily understandable book in general, yet, not all of the words of allah are easily understood by ordinary people and need explanatory commentary, .
tafsir '. alongside this path, there are some problems that those eager to learn the qur'anic truth should know and be careful of. hence, we deal, here, with some of the difficulties we recognized and were involved in when we were preparing this work; the fruit of our humble labour of more than three years, almost a pioneer service of its kind, was a translation of the commentary of over one part, ö volumes 1 and 2, (of the 30 parts) of the holy qur'an from different commentary sources.
the persian-arabic original work, compiled by a group of muslim scholars who preferred their names to be mentioned in the next world instead of this world, is based especially upon popular commentaries mostly accepted by muslim scholars of both schools of thought, with the consultation of some other books and present living scholars, learned in the qur'anic sciences, as our investigative sources on the path of producing this translated commentary in a simple standard of english easily understood by laymen. the style of writing, here, is a mixture of british-english and american-english,understandable by all the readers, even for those acquainted with only one of them; but excuse us for using some interchangable spellings. if both are used, from time to time, they are acceptable; i.e.: defenceless and defenseless, or favour and favor.
not all english versions of the qur'an are acceptable some of the western translators of the holy qur'an, not all of them of course, and some of the producers of the literature on islam in the english language are the anti-muslim elements which are busy distorting the facts about the faith to create disruption in the islamic ideology.
these hostile minds have done the worst possible work which is for them to black-list the holy prophet (p.b.u.h.) and the religion of islam, through their harsh, purposeful, and subtle mis-translations, mis-interpretations, mis-representations and distortion of the facts. the distortion and the misinterpretations are so strongly plastered with such attractive colors of their linguistic excellence and the delusive logic that the blind lovers of the english language, who are hardly or even totally unaware of the actual qur'anic factors of faith, get caught in the falsehood tempered with the eloquence and they swallow the .
sugar-coated poisonous pills of deceit ' and get themselves duly conditioned to serve the purpose of the publications of the hostile camps.
the current standing of evil has always been against the truth in the history of man, of course, or even before the recorded history, from when the sons of adam (a.s.) came into existence.
when these antagonistic elements have sucessfully extended their active influence upon our own religion, ideology and social tradition, we are also bound in our duty to allah, his final word, the holy qur'an, the faith, and to islam, to do our best, at least, to present to every sincere seeker of it a selection of the proper translation of the verses of the holy qur'an from among the best translations appropriate to the meaning of the original arabic text, and the .
tafsir ', commentary, applied in this book.
by the way, we believe it is the essential belief of .
shi.
ah ' that the present qur'an, which is in our hands today, is the holy book of allah, revealed to the holy prophet mohammad (p.b.u.h.), as arranged and compiled during his lifetime and was reread to him to assure accuracy and it contains nothing less or more than what was revealed.
and it should be noted that, " nay, but it is a glorious qur'an, (inscribed) in a tablet preserved." (85: 21,22), whose present arrangement is the order in which the various verses were assorted and arranged at the command of the holy prophet (p.b.u.h.), himself. this is the uncorrupted or undisturbed word of allah, the preservation of which has been guaranteed by allah, himself where he says: " we have, without doubt, sent down the message; and we will assuredly guard it (from corruption) ", (15: 9).
furthermore, the english translations next to the arabic text of the verses, in this book, besides the careful investigation and searching through different lexical and commentary sources together with the consultation of various authentic translations of english versions of the holy qur'an (the names of which are listed at the end of this book under the title of .
references ') contain the most specific possible senses in arabic and english languages. these have been considered and applied to produce the closest meaning to the word of allah and the commentary. the translator did his best to preserve this divine message and, in conveying the qur'anic facts in english, there has been some divine assistance bestowed (by allah) through seeking help from the messenger of allah, the holy prophet of islam (p.b.u.h.), who brought this message to light.
the translator of the current commentary, this writer, believes that the word of allah, the holy qur'an, which is one of the two weights .
Thaqalayn ', is too magnificent for him to translate, because of the fear of allah, and he needed a kind of permission from him to change the original text from arabic into another language which, somehow, was finally granted to him by the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) : " verily this is a revelation from the Lord of the Worlds ", " In the perspicuous arabic tongue ", (26: 192 ùóó 195).

what is a commentary ' ?

A pure, correct, accurate translation of the qur'an is necessary, but it is not sometimes enough for the readers of it to understand all of the apparent and hidden meanings that some verses bear, and, it is the duty of every muslim, man or woman, to read, understand and contemplate on the holy qur'an according to his own capacity: "...read you, therefore, of the Qur'an as much as may be easy for you...", (73: 20).
this reading has to be done not only with the tongue, voice and eyes; a mere recitation, but with the best light that our intellect can supply, and even more, with the truest and purest light which our heart and conscience can provide us. but, as was mentioned earlier, it is not always possible to understand the holy book by itself, fully, as allah says: " That is indeed a Qur'an most honourable," " Which none shall touch but those who are purified ", (56: 77,79).
thus, some additional information is needed. for example, it is sometimes necessary for the understanding of the text to refer to the particular occasion of the revelation of a particular verse; or to know the philological changes of a word used at the time of revelation or before it and the meaning that it has in arabic, today. or, the alphabetical symbols which evidently and undoubtedly are secrets, and especially the ambiguous / mutas§abihat /, the knowledge of which has been announced to be with the / rasixuna fil .
ilm /, .
those deeply established in knowledge ', with even the names of the hinted custodians of the knowledge to remain concealed. they are some things that only .
the particular ones, the sinless ones ', besides the prophet (p.b.u.h.), himself, the agency or the sources authorized by allah and the holy prophet (p.b.u.h.) viz, ahlul-bait who were connected to the knowledge of allah, (as he says: " and whom we had taught knowledge from our own presence " (18: 65), ) knew about all the qur'anic facts and talked about them in their traditions and narrations.
for instance, the apostle, himself, answered the questions which used to be asked by people as to the meaning of certain words in the verses revealed, or details of certain historical or spiritual matters on which they sought more enlightenment. these answers and explanations, or, in other words, the commentaries were gathered by some companions / ashab / and were afterwards written down which are called .
Hadith ' or .
traditions '. Of course, the holy Prophet(p.b.u.h.) had openly declared in hadith-uth-thaqalayn that the qur'an is with the ahlul-bait, and to avoid going astray, the muslims should be attached to these two. later, ahlul-bait's explanations and narrations, concerned with the matter, were added to them and, together with the effect of expert religious scholars in the past and present, brought up .
exegesis ' (explanation of the qur'an) which became a science in itself and was called .
tafsir ', commentary.
.
commentary ' shows how a group of verses or a particular verse was revealed to the holy prophet (p.b.u.h.) for a particular occasion which also has a general meaning. the particular occasion and the particular people concerned have passed away, but the general meaning and its application remain true for all time, to enlighten the world, thoroughly. this is also one of the miracles of this divine book that, with the help of .
commentary ', the qur'an is always open and it is always new for those new generations to come.

the current commentary

As was mentioned earlier, the light of islam is enlightening the corners everywhere in the world and seekers of truth,having referred to the translations of the holy qur'an, find that they need .
tafsir ',commentary.
some of them, the shi.
ah believers in particular, have been led to this center, amir-ul-mu'mineen ali (a.s.) library, which received many letters requesting a clear, concise english tafsir, .
a commentary of the holy qur'an '.
from the beginning of islam until today (although many times the holy qur'an has been translated into english and a few of them are published with brief, detailed commentary, as footnotes), there has rarely been, as far as we know, a fairly complete commentary in english sufficient for seekers of truth to find their answers. so, the decision was made to supply this commentary.
ayatullah .
allamah mujahid al-haj sayyid kamal faghih imani, the founder and responsible party of this islamic scientific research center, approached and reported the need for the commentary in english to the concerning scholars and appropriate research societies.
then, 12 people, who had varying nationalities and educational backgrounds, especially from the point of english language and islamic theology, gathered. in their first gathering which was held on 28th safar, 1412 (1370 h. and 1991), they concluded that the commentary of the whole qur'an which they intended to supply in english, would take many years of time for the translators to produce.
in order to quench the thirst of the lovers of truth who had demanded it again and again, they decided to supply the translation of the commentary of the last section of the qur'an as a sample and after its publication and receiving the constructive comments of the readers, then, with better skillfulness, this writer (or writers), would continue the translation of the commentary from the beginning of the holy qur'an to provide a complete one.
therefore, they thought it would be better that the sample, entitled .
An Enlightening Commentary into the Light of the Holy Qur'an ', begin with sura insan, the end of the 29th section, because the qur'an was revealed for the improvement of man and this sura is about man and his creation from a lowly life-germ which can develop unto the highest points where no other creature can ascend.
but at the time of initiation, viz. when the translation of the commentary of the qur'an actually began, the number of the involved people dwindled down to two, the translator and the editor, who continued the endeavour until the english translation of the commentary of the thirtieth part of the qur'an was finished and then offered it to the truth seekers of the world in two volumes.
thanks to allah, the gracious, in addition to the extraordinary abundant appreciations and encouragements of the dear readers of these books from different parts of the world in their thousands of letters, the first and the second volumes of this commentary not only were elected nationally as the best translated books in iran (1995 ad, 1416 / 1374 ah. and again in 1996 ad, 1417 / 1375 ah.) but, according to some eye witnesses and many letters from various universities and scientific religious centers in the world, they have also been considered, up to now, the newest, most unique outstanding pioneer works of their kind and are used as authentic reference books of islamic theology based on the view points of ahlul-bait (a.s.).
furthermore, they have been selected to be taught as english text books in some universities and religious schools in different eastern and westerm countries, even in england. therefore, we ought to be very thankful to allah who let the light of his word spread so brightly and effectively thereby. all of these favours, of course, were the best spiritual worldly reward for this mortal and a form of encouragement to begin the endeavour from the beginning of the qur'an as was previously designed and decided. by the help of Allah (s.w.t.), he, as a translator, finished the translation of the current volume by himself, as he did the former volumes. also, the investigation of the materials and verification of the conformity of them with their original sources was another achievement for him added to the auspicious task of translation. yet, he believes and usually murmers by himself: " And my success (in my task) can only come from Allah. in him do i trust, and unto him do i look." (11: 88) there have been, of course, some others such as the scholars, the editor, the library officials, the computer data entry operator and typist, those printing house-personell, etc. who sincerely had a share in the concerning activities until these published books became ready to be delivered to the dear readers.
hence, we are completely grateful for their efforts and extend our thanks for their attempts as well as to those who financially or mentally and idealistically had any kind of involvement and cooperation in this work.

Attributes Needed for Working on This kind of commentary

This endeavour needed not only the knowledge and skillfulness in the english language, but also the knowledge of arabic, persian, and islamic science and culture, because tafsir is an attempt to analyze and explain the meaning of verses in the holy qur'an. moreover, allah, Himself, says: " We have sent down to thee the book explaining all things, a Guide, a Mercy, and Glad Tidings to Muslims ", (Sura Al-Nahl, No. 16, verse 89).
then, it needs that those involved have sufficient understanding about almost all sciences and knowledge that human beings are concerned with when working with the commentary. also, besides their structure, the phonetic sound systems of the two languages, english and arabic, are different. therefore, when an arabic word from the Qur'an is mentioned in the English text, to avoid using .
Arabic Script ' in the book, as far as possible, it is shown with the phonetic alphabet and in its special phonetical sign, i.e.: / /.
a transliteration table of the arabic letters and sounds and the corresponding phonetic signs, applied in this book, is given at the beginning of the book, (p. 31).

the problems in translating

The translator has tried to avoid mixing up his own personal theories and conclusions with the interpretation of the text, itself, which is usually perfectly perspicuous as it claims to be. with the help of allah, he did his best; at times asking for guidance from some learned clergymen, and using all the knowledge and experience he possessed in the service of the holy qur'an for translating its commentary, hoping that allah accepts it. but the nature of this sort of endeavour is so that, in the course of translation, some difficulties arise from various causes. for instance, cultures in the arabic language and english language are different so that some of the words like / amrun bayn al amrayn / in the case of fatalism and freewill are nearly impossible to be translated into english; or because the concept is not found in english literature, it is sometimes rather difficult with, for example, what /sajdah/ .
prostration ' exactly means in arabic. in such cases he selected the meaning of the words from among what the earlier commentators and philologists used and, also, where they were not unanimous, he used the ideas of the new writers who had reasonable advantages in their interpretations. explanations, of course, are always helpful in conveying clear meanings, which he took benefit from, too.
it is noteworthy that there are some circumstances in the text, of the commentary, in which a verse or verses of the qur'an from other suras rather than the sura under discussion are mentioned as evidence or, thereby, for strengthening the idea. the text of these verses and, also, the traditions and narrations from the holy prophet (p.b.u.h.) or ahlul-bait (a.s.) are printed in english in bolder type than the running commentary in order to distinguish, at a glance, the substance from the shadow. also, the mentioned verses are generally and subtly or roughly taken provisionally from a. yusuf ali's translation or other translations of the qur'an, the list of which is given at the end of the book. these verses should be changed or re-adjusted to those translations done by the writer in this book when the translation of the commentary of the qur'an ends.

it was only by his merciful will

The translator has interesting factual stories to tell of how the way of this endeavour was paved by providence and how he was divinely led to be absorbed into this task, alhamd-u-lillah. a few words given here, in this regard, are not to be misunderstood as a display of vanity for any pecular distinction; for there is none.
it is purely to attract the attention of the readers to a living instance of the providential implementation of the divine plan and how man drifts to his assignment and how matters are automatically manipulated, though, they seem yet only to be circumstantial. " ... our lord is he who gave to each (created) thing its form and nature and further gave (it) guidance." (20: 50) now, alhamd-u-lillah, that the translation of the commentary of this part of the qur'an has been completed and handed to you, the dear reader, you are, in advance, honourably asked to, firstly, forgive whatever mistakes or typographical errs you may find in it, and, secondly, inform them clearly, if any, to the publisher's address, with your evidence or point of view to be utilized and the material be corrected in later prints.
finally, prayer is offered to almighty allah that he may endow the translator with life and strength enough to live to complete the series of this humble effort successfully under his merciful confirmation and acceptance; and may he allow this book to go what small distance it can towards our ultimate salvation. amin.


was-salam sayyid abbas sadr-.
ameli

publisher's note

The swelling, surging revolution of the iranian muslim nation has an essentially specific culture which is based on and has flourished because of adherence to the monotheistic school of thought, the qur'an, ahlul-bait (a.s.) and other islamic theology. the nation of iran has revolutionized in order to revive and expand that culture. one of the bases of this goal among the youth and other interested citizens (people) is the establishment of public scientific research centers wherein the means of study and research of islamic science and culture are made available.
amir-ul-mu'mineen ali(a.s.) public library and religious scientific research center in isfahan is one of these centers, which, from its earliest days of establishment, in addition to achieving this aim, has continuously had a share, as far as possible,in the publication of the works of some shi.
ah scholars from iran as well as others in the world.
the subject matter of these useful books were different. it commenced with the publication of an outstanding islamic work on the subject of imamate. this work was comprised of two books containing some chosen materials from 56 separate treatises composed by the leading traditionists of the sunnite school of thought about imam mahdi, allah's remaining emissary, and offered to the esteemed clerical class and all those interested in science and knowledge. since then, this institute has published thirty one other valuable religious, scientific research works in arabic and farsi.
when these publications were distributed in different parts of the world, as one factor, together with the reflection of the social, cultural and religions revolution of iran, they introduced this country as the .
heart ' of the islamic world. therefore, those who love islam and the qur'an and are interested in the school of thought of ahlul-bait (a.s.) communicated with this scientific research center from a variety of nationalities, races, and colours all over the world by way of letters, fax messages, and telephone calls to demand that this beloved message, i.e., the qur'an and islamic theology, which is the ideal of the truth-seekers of the world, be published in their own languages. .
the commentary of the qur'an in english ' was included among the demands of many people. hence, the founder of the islamic republic of iran, the sage, the grand leader of the revolution, and the master of the affairs of muslims, the late honorable ayatullah-il-.
uzma al-imam khomeini (s.a.), was informed of the immediate circumstance. he responded: "This idea ought to be put to action as soon as possible. The translation of the commentary of the holy qur'an in english, as well as in other possible languages, should be made available to the knowledgable ones and lovers of Islam and the Qur'an." He even continued by saying: " There is much to be done and so little time." imam khomeini (r.) was a man of knowledge, interested in study and research, a learned clergyman, a high ranking philosopher, and a grand unique politician who had attained his nourishment from the pure fountain of monotheism,the qur'an, and ahlul-bait's (a.s.) doctrine. he was truly a lover of islam and the qur'an and a genuine follower of ahlul-bait's (a.s.) knowledge and teachings. the magnificence of his thought and his sincerity to the qur'an and ahlul-bait (a.s.) is apparent in his statements contained in .
the last message ' which is his last politico-divine will and testament. in this remaining work of his, after a notable explanation about the well-known holy tradition from the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) who said: " i leave behind me two weighty (very worthy and important) things: the book of allah (i.e. the qur'an) and my progeny, my ahlul-bait. never, never will these two get separated from each other until they meet me at the Haud of kauthar (the pond of abundance). ..." imam khomeini adds: " we are honored and our beloved nation, which is totally committed to islam and qur'an, is honored that it wants to liberate the truths of the qur'an, which from end-to-end calls for the unity of muslims and the entire humanity, from graveyards and cemeteries and present it as the greatest prescription for liberation from the chains which are wrapped around the hands, feet, hearts, and minds of human beings and drag them towards non-existence and destruction, slavery and subjugation to the taqootis. we are honored that we are the followers of a madhab (school of religious law) whose founder, on allah's direction, was allah's prophet and ameer ul- mu'meneen 'ali ibn abi talib, this servant of allah who was himself liberated from all chains and was designated, in turn, as the liberator of mankind from all chains of slavery (to other than allah).
we are honored that nahjul balagha, which after the qur'an is the greatest prescription for spiritual and material life, is the highest book for the liberation of mankind, and its spiritual and political prescriptions are the most valuable for liberation, is authored by our ma'soom imam.
we are honored that the ma'soom imams from 'ali ibn abi talib to the liberator of mankind (a.s.) who with the power of allah is alive and supervises all affairs, are our imams. we are honored that the supplications, which are called the ascending qur'an are from our ma'soom imams.
we are honored that the intimate prayers of sha'banieya, the supplications of 'arafat of hossein ibn 'ali, saheefa sajjaddiya (this psalms of ale mohammad), and saheefa fatimah (which is an allah-inspired book to zahraye mardieya) are from us.
we are honored that baqir ul 'ulum, who is the highest personality of history and no one, other than allah ta'ala and the prophet (s.a.w.a.w.s.) and the ma'soom imams, has been or will ever be able to understand his station is from us. and we are honored that our madhab is ja'afari and that our fiqh which is an infinite sea (of knowledge) is one of his (imam sadiq a.s.) contributions. and we are proud of all ma'soom imams (a.s.) and we are committed to following them.
we are honored that our ma'soom imams (a.s.) lived in prisons and exile because they tried to raise the status of the deen of islam and implement the (teachings) of the holy qur'an, one of whose dimensions is the formation of the just government, and finally became martyrs in attempts to irradicate oppressive governments and taqootis of their own time. today we are honored that we want to implement the ideals of the qur'an and sunnah. for the sake of this magnanimous end, our people selflessly sacrifice their lives, properties, and loved ones in the way of allah.
we are honored that our women, young and old, big and small, weak and strong, are present and work, side by side or even better than our men, in raising the status of islam and achieving the ideals of islam in cultural, economic, and military fields. ..." hence, according to our islamic religious and social duty, we took action towards the publication of the english version of the commentary of the qur'an. after three years of effort and endeavour on the part of all who were involved in the completing of this work, the first print of the first and second volumes of this commentary consisting of the thirtieth part (juz') of the holy qur'an entitled: .
an enlightening commentary into the light of the holy qur'an ' was urgently distributed throughout the world. these two volumes were so ardently and well received by the thirsty readers that over the following one and a half years we had to reprint them four times and, as a result, fortunately it happened that this religious research center has been honoured to happily welcome more than four thousand letters received from various addresses all over the world, including those in european countries, different states of america, and many sites in asia, africa and australia. the people of these locales, those busy in universities, research centers, and other similar institutes, or even in prisons, whose letters are all available in this library, frequently asked for these commentary books. they liked them very much and appreciated them abundantly, so much so that we cannot evaluate its depth or extent.
now, by the might and strength of allah, this most recent volume is presented to the lovers of monotheism, the qur'an, and the islamic theology hoping that it will be favourably accepted by allah, the merciful, and also be specifically regarded by his remaining emissary, the expected mahdi (may allah hasten his glad advent) and, finally, be received by his true deputies, i.e., the grand .
maraji.
taqlid ' (sources of imitation) especially the great leader of the revolution and master of muslims' affairs at the present time:

ayatullah-il-uzma sayyid ali khaminehee .
--------------------------------------------------------------- sayyid kamal faghih imani Researcher ùóó Founder of the Scientific and Religious research center amir-ul-mu'mineen ali (a.s.) public library isfahan, islamic republic of iran