The major tafsirs — an expanded panorama
Sunni, Shia, Ibāḍī, Muʿtazilite and Sufi — corrected, expanded and verified edition (2026)
An expanded version of the “Table of the various tafsīr”: the Sunni entries have been verified and corrected and the early philological school (Maʿānī / Majāz / Iʿrāb) has been added; the Shia and Sufi sections have been enriched; Ibāḍī and Muʿtazilite sections, together with Zaydī/Ismāʿīlī additions, have been created. Dates of death are given in Hijrī/Gregorian (for modern figures: birth–death); the genre appears in the 4th column; genuine uncertainties are flagged “(to be verified)”. The corrections and clarifications are listed at the end of the document.
| Date (d.) | Title (Arabic) | Author | Genre | Distinctive features |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I. Sunni tafsirs | ||||
| Early philological school (Maʿānī / Majāz / Iʿrāb al-Qurʾān) | ||||
| d.207/822 | معاني القرآن | الفرّاء (يحيى بن زياد) | Maʿānī (Kūfa) | The oldest extant Kūfan philological commentary; grammar, dialects and reading variants. |
| d.209/824 | مجاز القرآن | أبو عبيدة معمر بن المثنى | Majāz / lexicon | The first extant work on the style and language of the Qurʾān; founds the study of majāz. (date 209–213, to be verified) |
| d.215/830 | معاني القرآن | الأخفش الأوسط (سعيد بن مسعدة) | Maʿānī (Baṣra) | A student of Sībawayh; the Baṣran counterpart to al-Farrāʾ’s Maʿānī. (215 or 221, to be verified) |
| d.311/923 | معاني القرآن وإعرابه | الزجّاج | Maʿānī wa iʿrāb | A synthesis linking meaning and grammatical analysis; more attentive to the Qurʾānic sense than his predecessors. |
| d.338/950 | إعراب القرآن | النحّاس | Iʿrāb al-Qurʾān | The oldest extant systematic work of grammatical analysis (iʿrāb) of the Qurʾān (he also has a Maʿānī). |
| Classical exegesis | ||||
| d.150/767 | تفسير مقاتل بن سليمان | مقاتل بن سليمان | bi-l-maʼthūr (by transmission) | The oldest extant complete tafsir; verse by verse, rich in isrāʾīliyyāt. |
| d.211/827 | تفسير عبد الرزّاق | عبد الرزّاق الصنعاني | bi-l-maʼthūr (by transmission) | A very early collection transmitted through chains; a major source for the traditions of the earliest generations. |
| d.310/923 | جامع البيان عن تأويل آي القرآن | الطبري | bi-l-maʼthūr (by transmission) | ≈ 28 volumes; cites and weighs the chains of transmission; the first major extant continuous exegesis. |
| d.327/938 | تفسير ابن أبي حاتم | ابن أبي حاتم الرازي | bi-l-maʼthūr (by transmission) | Almost exclusively traditions traced back through chains; one of Ibn Kathīr’s sources. |
| d.370/981 | أحكام القرآن | الجصّاص | aḥkām (legal, Ḥanafī) | Verses of legal import according to the Ḥanafī school; one of the first major legal tafsirs. |
| d.373/983 | بحر العلوم | أبو الليث السمرقندي | bi-l-maʼthūr (by transmission) | An early Ḥanafī tafsir blending transmitted tradition and analysis (date sometimes given as 375 H). |
| d.427/1035 | الكشف والبيان | الثعلبي | bi-l-maʼthūr (by transmission) | Rich in isrāʾīliyyāt and variants; Shāfiʿī in orientation; the model for al-Baghawī. |
| d.450/1058 | النكت والعيون | الماوردي | concise (Shāfiʿī) | Sets out the various opinions concisely and in an orderly way; a Shāfiʿī and philological perspective. |
| d.468/1076 | الوجيز | الواحدي | abridgment | An accessible compendium (the model for the Jalālayn); the author also wrote al-Wasīṭ and al-Basīṭ. |
| d.489/1096 | تفسير القرآن (تفسير السمعاني) | أبو المظفر السمعاني | bi-l-maʼthūr (by transmission, Shāfiʿī) | Grand mufti of Khurāsān; a concise tafsir grounded in tradition, a Sunni alternative to the Kashshāf. |
| d.516/1122 | معالم التنزيل | البغوي | bi-l-maʼthūr (by transmission) | Abridges and purges Thaʿlabī (fewer isrāʾīliyyāt); widely circulated. |
| d.538/1144 | الكشّاف عن حقائق التنزيل | الزمخشري | linguistic | A pinnacle of grammatical and rhetorical analysis; conveys Muʿtazilite theology. |
| d.541/1147 | المحرّر الوجيز | ابن عطية | linguistic | An Andalusian Mālikī-Ashʿarī exegesis, selective and critical; much used by Qurṭubī. |
| d.543/1148 | أحكام القرآن | ابن العربي (القاضي أبو بكر) | aḥkām (legal, Mālikī) | Verses of legal import according to the Mālikī school, by the great qāḍī of Seville. |
| d.597/1201 | زاد المسير في علم التفسير | ابن الجوزي | bi-l-maʼthūr (by transmission) | Organizes the opinions of the Salaf in an orderly way; a synthetic, handy Ḥanbalī tafsir. |
| d.606/1210 | مفاتيح الغيب (التفسير الكبير) | فخر الدين الرازي | bi-l-raʼy (by reasoning) | ≈ 32 volumes; a tafsir “by reasoning”: Ashʿarī theology, philosophy, the sciences. |
| d.671/1273 | الجامع لأحكام القرآن | القرطبي | aḥkām (legal, Mālikī) | Focused on legal rulings but embracing hadith, language and narratives; a Mālikī reference. |
| d.685/1292 | أنوار التنزيل وأسرار التأويل | البيضاوي | mixed | Condenses and “Sunnifies” the Kashshāf (without its Muʿtazilism); a classic teaching manual. (685 or 691) |
| d.710/1310 | مدارك التنزيل وحقائق التأويل | النسفي | mixed (Ḥanafī-Māturīdī) | A clear abridgment (Zamakhsharī + Bayḍāwī, without Muʿtazilism); among the most widely taught. |
| d.741/1340 | لباب التأويل في معاني التنزيل | الخازن | bi-l-maʼthūr (by transmission) | A very popular summary of al-Baghawī’s Maʿālim al-tanzīl; rich in narratives. |
| d.741/1340 | التسهيل لعلوم التنزيل | ابن جزي الكلبي الغرناطي | concise (Mālikī) | A synthetic and accessible Granadan tafsir, a digest of the Qurʾānic sciences; widely circulated in the Maghreb. |
| d.745/1344 | البحر المحيط | أبو حيان الأندلسي | linguistic | A major linguistic commentary (grammar, lexicon, readings), by the foremost grammarian of his time. |
| d.756/1355 | الدرّ المصون | السمين الحلبي | linguistic | Grammatical and iʿrāb analysis (≈ 11 vols.); continues the Baḥr al-muḥīṭ of his teacher Abū Ḥayyān. |
| d.774/1373 | تفسير القرآن العظيم | ابن كثير | bi-l-maʼthūr (by transmission) | The reference for tafsir by tradition: Qurʾān by the Qurʾān, hadith, the Salaf, criticism of the chains. |
| d.864/1459 | تفسير الجلالين (first half) | جلال الدين المحلّي | concise abridgment | Began the Jalālayn (from al-Kahf to the end, plus al-Fātiḥa); died before its completion. |
| d.875/1471 | الجواهر الحسان في تفسير القرآن | الثعالبي (عبد الرحمن) | bi-l-maʼthūr (by transmission, Mālikī) | An enriched abridgment of Ibn ʿAṭiyya’s tafsir; a Maghrebī reference (an Ashʿarī author with a Sufi sensibility). |
| aft. 880/aft. 1475 | اللباب في علوم الكتاب | ابن عادل الدمشقي | encyclopedia (Ḥanbalī) | A vast compilation (~20 vols.) merging chiefly Rāzī and Abū Ḥayyān. (exact date to be verified) |
| d.885/1480 | نظم الدرر في تناسب الآيات والسور | البقاعي | munāsabāt | The reference work on the internal coherence of the Qurʾān: the links between verses and between suras. |
| d.911/1505 | تفسير الجلالين (completed) | جلال الدين السيوطي | concise abridgment | Completed the work of his teacher al-Maḥallī; a tafsir of great concision, very popular. |
| d.911/1505 | الدرّ المنثور في التفسير بالمأثور | السيوطي | bi-l-maʼthūr (by transmission) | Encyclopedic, made up entirely of transmitted traditions (often contradictory, with no sifting). |
| d.977/1570 | السراج المنير | الخطيب الشربيني | bi-l-maʼthūr (by transmission, Shāfiʿī) | A clear and didactic Ottoman tafsir, predominantly Shāfiʿī legal and linguistic. |
| d.982/1574 | إرشاد العقل السليم | أبو السعود العمادي | linguistic / rhetorical | An Ottoman tafsir renowned for its eloquence and its treatment of iʿjāz; in the Zamakhsharī–Bayḍāwī lineage. |
| d.1250/1834 | فتح القدير | الشوكاني | mixed (riwāya + dirāya) | Combines transmitted tradition (riwāya) and critical analysis (dirāya); of the traditionist current. |
| d.1270/1854 | روح المعاني | الألوسي | encyclopedic (+ ishārī, allusive) | A summa synthesizing tradition, language, theology and Sufi touches; prefigures the scientific tafsir. |
| Modern and contemporary period | ||||
| 1849–1935 | تفسير المنار | محمد عبده / رشيد رضا | reformist (iṣlāḥ) | Born of ʿAbduh’s lectures and continued by Rashīd Riḍā; reformist, social, rationalist (unfinished). |
| 1866–1914 | محاسن التأويل | القاسمي (محمد جمال الدين) | reformist (Salafī) | A modern exegetical encyclopedia synthesizing the early sources; close in spirit to the Manār. |
| 1862–1940 | الجواهر في تفسير القرآن | طنطاوي جوهري | “scientific” | Sets the modern sciences alongside the verses; a pioneer of scientific exegesis. |
| 1889–1940 | مجالس التذكير | عبد الحميد ابن باديس | reformist | An Algerian reformist exegesis (the journal al-Shihāb); cultural revival and nationalism. |
| 1883–1952 | تفسير المراغي | أحمد مصطفى المراغي | popularization (Azharī) | An accessible reformulation (~8 vols.) in contemporary language; a pedagogical heir of ʿAbduh. |
| 1878–1954 | المصحف المفسَّر | محمد فريد وجدي | popularization | A tafsir for a general readership, accompanying the muṣḥaf. |
| 1889–1957 | تيسير الكريم الرحمن | السعدي | concise Salafī | A concise and clear tafsir in the understanding of the Salaf; very widespread. |
| 1906–1966 | في ظلال القرآن | سيد قطب | literary / committed | An exegesis at once literary and committed, largely written in prison; highly influential. |
| 1879–1973 | التحرير والتنوير | ابن عاشور | linguistic / maqāṣid | A Tunisian exegesis attentive to Arabic rhetoric and to the maqāṣid; ≈ 50 years of work. |
| 1907–1973 | أضواء البيان | الشنقيطي | Qurʾān by the Qurʾān | The method of tafsīr al-Qurʾān bi-l-Qurʾān; completed by his student ʿAṭiyya M. Sālim. |
| 1903–1979 | تفهيم القرآن | المودودي | reformist (Urdu) | A translation-commentary in Urdu oriented toward Islamic social and political thought. |
| 1888–1984 | التفسير الحديث | محمد عزّة دروزة | order of revelation | A distinctive feature: it comments on the suras in the chronological order of revelation, not that of the muṣḥaf. |
| 1935–1989 | الأساس في التفسير | سعيد حوّى | thematic (reformist) | A reading of each sura by thematic “units,” in the lineage of Sayyid Quṭb. |
| 1913–1998 | التفسير البياني للقرآن الكريم | عائشة عبد الرحمن (بنت الشاطئ) | literary (bayānī) | A literary and thematic approach to the Meccan suras. |
| 1911–1998 | خواطر الشعراوي | محمد متولي الشعراوي | oral / popularization | Oral “reflections” transcribed by a team; immense popularity in the media. |
| 1932–2015 | التفسير المنير في العقيدة والشريعة والمنهج | وهبة الزحيلي | contemporary legal | A major modern tafsir (30 vols.) articulating creed, law (fiqh) and method; very widely used. |
| II. Shia tafsirs (Imamite, Zaydī, Ismāʿīlī) | ||||
| Imamites (Twelvers) — early, riwāʾī | ||||
| c.307/919 (or 329) | تفسير القمي | علي بن إبراهيم القمي | riwāʾī | The oldest transmitted Imamite tafsir; interpretations attributed to the Imams. Date uncertain. |
| c.320/932 | تفسير العياشي | محمد بن مسعود العياشي | riwāʾī | Early; the extant text stops at sura 18 (the chains of transmission pruned by copyists). |
| c.310/922 (to be verified) | تفسير فرات الكوفي | فرات بن إبراهيم الكوفي | riwāʾī | ≈ 775 hadiths, centered on the virtues of the Ahl al-Bayt; a poorly documented biography. |
| Imamites — classical (balāghī, ʿaqlī, linguistic) | ||||
| 406/1015 | تلخيص البيان في مجازات القرآن | الشريف الرضي | balāghī (rhetorical) | The oldest tafsir devoted to the figurative language (majāz) of the Qurʾān, by the compiler of Nahj al-Balāgha. |
| 460/1067 | التبيان في تفسير القرآن | الشيخ الطوسي | ʿaqlī (rational) / linguistic | The first complete Imamite tafsir; a rational turning point (grammar, theology, readings, the weighing of opinions). |
| 548/1154 | مجمع البيان لعلوم القرآن | الطبرسي | ʿaqlī (rational) / linguistic | An Imamite reference; linguistic rigor, a clear structure, a moderate tone; in the lineage of al-Ṭūsī. |
| c.552/1157 | روض الجنان وروح الجنان | أبو الفتوح الرازي | Persian | The first complete Imamite tafsir in Persian (≈ 20 vols.). Death in 552 or 556 H. |
| Imamites — Safavid and modern (a return to riwāʾī) | ||||
| 1091/1680 | الصافي (and the abridgment الأصفى) | الفيض الكاشاني | riwāʾī + spiritual | A traditional approach tinged with spirituality (the Isfahan school); al-Aṣfā is its short version. |
| 1107/1696 | البرهان في تفسير القرآن | السيد هاشم البحراني | riwāʾī | ≈ 10 vols. based entirely on Shia hadiths linking verses to the virtues of the Imams. |
| 1112/1700 | نور الثقلين | الحويزي | riwāʾī | A systematic compilation of the traditions of the Ahl al-Bayt, verse by verse, with little commentary. |
| 1125/1713 | كنز الدقائق وبحر الغرائب | القمي المشهدي | riwāʾī | A vast tafsir (~14 vols.) based on the hadiths of the Imams; a major source for the Akhbārī school. |
| 1242/1827 | الجوهر الثمين (and تفسير شبّر) | السيد عبد الله شبّر | riwāʾī | “The second Majlisī”; a major tafsir (6 vols.) and a widely circulated one-volume abridgment. |
| Imamites — contemporary | ||||
| 1352/1933 | آلاء الرحمن في تفسير القرآن | محمد جواد البلاغي | apologetic / comparative | An unfinished tafsir, noted for its refutation of Orientalist and Christian objections. |
| 1402/1981 | الميزان في تفسير القرآن | العلامة الطباطبائي | philosophical | A major 20th-century work (27 vols.); the method of tafsīr al-Qurʾān bi-l-Qurʾān; philosophical and social dimensions. |
| 1413/1992 | البيان في تفسير القرآن | أبو القاسم الخوئي | ʿulūm al-Qurʾān | Devoted chiefly to the Qurʾānic sciences (iʿjāz, the integrity of the text, qirāʾāt); a tafsir of the Fātiḥa alone. |
| 1400/1979 | الكاشف (and المبين) | محمد جواد مغنية | reformist / social | A Lebanese scholar; accessible prose, a social orientation, a concern for the modern reader. |
| 2010/1431 | من وحي القرآن | محمد حسين فضل الله | contextual / committed | A Lebanese scholar (≈ 24 vols.); a literary and committed approach, a relatively open reading. |
| alive (b. 1945) | من هدى القرآن | محمد تقي المدرّسي | educational / social | An 18-volume tafsir linking the text to reality; an influential Iraqi-Iranian marjaʿ. |
| alive (b. 1927) | الأمثل (Ar.) / تفسير نمونه (Pers.) | ناصر مكارم الشيرازي | didactic | A collective tafsir (27 vols.) under his direction; Nemūneh = the Persian original, al-Amthal = the Arabic version. |
| Zaydīs | ||||
| 298/911 | تفسير القرآن (+ معاني القرآن) | الإمام الهادي إلى الحق يحيى بن الحسين | Muʿtazilite-Zaydī | Founder of the Zaydī imamate of Yemen; a scattered exegesis, the foundation of the Hādawī school. |
| 310/922 | تفسير القرآن (الشرح والبيان) | المرتضى محمد بن يحيى | Muʿtazilite-Zaydī | The eldest son of al-Hādī and a Zaydī imam; a tafsir in nine volumes. |
| 494/1101 | التهذيب في التفسير | الحاكم الجشمي | Muʿtazilite-Zaydī | A rationalist Muʿtazilite tafsir (9 vols., mostly in manuscript); a major source and the teacher of Zamakhsharī. |
| 832/1429 | الثمرات اليانعة والأحكام الواضحة | يوسف بن أحمد الثلائي | āyāt al-aḥkām (Zaydī) | A legal tafsir (verses of law) in several volumes; a Zaydī author from northern Yemen. |
| 877/1472 | شافي العليل شرح الخمسمائة آية | ابن القاسم النجري | āyāt al-aḥkām (Zaydī) | A commentary on the “five hundred verses of law” by a Zaydī polymath of Yemen. |
| Ismāʿīlī (for reference) | ||||
| 363/974 | تأويل الدعائم | القاضي النعمان | bāṭinī (esoteric, taʼwīl) | Not a verse-by-verse tafsir, but the Fatimid Ismāʿīlī allegorical hermeneutics (taʼwīl). |
| III. Ibāḍī tafsirs | ||||
| 3rd c. AH / 9th c. | تفسير كتاب الله العزيز | هود بن مُحكَّم الهوّاري | riwāʾī (Ibāḍī) | One of the oldest Ibāḍī tafsirs to have come down to us; an abridgment of the tafsir of Yaḥyā b. Sallām, with Ibāḍī positions. A Berber author of the Maghreb. |
| 570/1175 | تفسير القرآن (largely lost) | أبو يعقوب الوارجلاني | ʿaqlī (rational, Ibāḍī) | A vast tafsir attributed by the Ibāḍī sources to the reviver of the Musnad al-Rabīʿ; the text is today essentially lost. |
| 1207/1792 | التفسير الميسّر للقرآن الكريم | سعيد بن أحمد الكندي النَّزوي | riwāʾī (Ibāḍī) | Presented as the first complete tafsir by an Omani scholar (3 vols.). An Ibāḍī attribution is very likely (to be confirmed). |
| 1332/1914 | هِمْيان الزاد إلى دار المعاد | محمد بن يوسف اطفيّش | ʿaqlī (rational, Ibāḍī) | A great exegetical summa (~14 vols.) by the leading figure of modern Maghrebī Ibāḍism (the Mzab, Algeria). |
| 1332/1914 | تيسير التفسير | محمد بن يوسف اطفيّش | ʿaqlī (rational, Ibāḍī) | A complete tafsir by the same author, a synthetic abridgment of his works; published by the Ministry of Heritage of Oman. |
| IV. Muʿtazilite tafsirs | ||||
| ~200/816 (to be verified) | تفسير القرآن | أبو بكر الأصمّ (عبد الرحمن بن كيسان) | kalām (theology, early) | One of the oldest Muʿtazilite tafsirs; LOST, reconstructed from quotations (date 200/201 or 279, disputed). |
| 303/915 | تفسير القرآن | أبو علي الجبّائي | kalām (theology, Baṣra school) | An immense work by the head of the Baṣra school; LOST, reconstructed by D. Gimaret (1994) from those who quote it. |
| 319/931 | التفسير (تفسير الكعبي) | أبو القاسم البلخي الكعبي | kalām (theology, Baghdad school) | A tafsir (~12 vols.) by the head of the Baghdad school; LOST, with fragments gathered in the Mawsūʿat tafāsīr al-muʿtazila. |
| 322/934 | جامع التأويل لمحكم التنزيل | أبو مسلم الأصفهاني (محمد بن بحر) | rationalist taʼwīl | A major tafsir (14 vols.) noted for its rejection of abrogation (naskh); LOST, partially reconstituted. |
| 384/994 | الجامع لعلم القرآن (+ النكت في إعجاز القرآن) | علي بن عيسى الرمّاني | philological / iʿjāz | al-Jāmiʿ (a question-and-answer method) partially extant in manuscripts; al-Nukat, a short foundational treatise on iʿjāz, extant. |
| 415/1025 | تنزيه القرآن عن المطاعن (+ متشابه القرآن) | القاضي عبد الجبّار | apologetic (tanzīh) | No continuous tafsir: two EXTANT treatises — a refutation of the “criticisms” of the Qurʾān, and an exegesis of the ambiguous verses. |
| Also Muʿtazilites, classed elsewhere: al-Zamakhsharī (al-Kashshāf → Sunnis) and al-Ḥākim al-Jishumī (al-Tahdhīb → Zaydīs). | ||||
| V. Sufi tafsirs (ishārī) | ||||
| 283/896 | تفسير القرآن العظيم (تفسير التُّستري) | سهل التُّستري | ishārī (allusive) | The oldest extant mystical tafsir; founds the inner (bāṭin) reading of the Qurʾān. |
| 412/1021 | حقائق التفسير (+ زيادات) | السُّلَمي | ishārī (allusive, compilation) | The first systematic collection of Sufi exegesis (Tustarī, Junayd, Ibn ʿAṭāʾ…); a seminal work. |
| 465/1072 | لطائف الإشارات | القشيري | ishārī (allusive, continuous) | The first major continuous and personal ishārī tafsir; the allusions remain anchored in the literal sense. |
| ~520/1126 (to be verified) | كشف الأسرار وعدّة الأبرار | رشيد الدين الميبدي | ishārī (allusive, Persian) | The longest Persian commentary; three “rounds” per verse (translation, exegesis, mysticism); the sayings of al-Anṣārī. |
| 606/1209 | عرائس البيان في حقائق القرآن | روزبهان البقلي | ishārī (allusive, ecstatic) | A complete tafsir of great visionary intensity (the language of divine love, ʿishq). |
| ≈ 618–736 | التأويلات النجمية (عين الحياة) | الكبرى / الرازي «داية» / السمناني | ishārī (allusive, Kubrawī) | A collective Kubrawī work spanning three generations (see the notes); a symbolic reading by levels of meaning. |
| 638/1240 | (no continuous tafsir — scattered work) | ابن عربي | ishārī (allusive, diffuse) | The Shaykh al-Akbar left no continuous tafsir; his exegesis is scattered (the Futūḥāt, the Fuṣūṣ). See the notes. |
| 728/1328 (to be verified) | غرائب القرآن ورغائب الفرقان | نظام الدين النيسابوري | Ashʿarī + ishārī (allusive) | A synthesis of Rāzī and Zamakhsharī crowning each sura with a Sufi taʼwīl (a Sunni author). (date 728 or ~850) |
| 736/1335 | تأويلات القرآن (تأويلات عبد الرزاق) | عبد الرزاق الكاشاني | ishārī (allusive, Akbarian) | A systematic tafsir of Akbarian inspiration. Often wrongly printed under “Tafsīr Ibn ʿArabī” (see the notes). |
| 835/1432 | تبصير الرحمن وتيسير المنّان | علي بن أحمد المهائمي | ishārī (allusive, Akbarian) | A tafsir by the Indian Sufi of Mahaim; it blends a rhetorical exegesis of iʿjāz and Akbarian taʼwīl. In Arabic. |
| 910/1505 | المواهب العلية (التفسير الحسيني) | حسين الواعظ الكاشفي | ishārī (allusive, Persian) | The most widely circulated Persian tafsir in Central Asia and the subcontinent; the author’s Sufi affiliation is debated (Sunni/Shia). |
| ~920/1514 (to be verified) | الفواتح الإلهية والمفاتح الغيبية | نعمة الله النخجواني | ishārī (allusive, Akbarian) | A complete Akbarian tafsir; a text connected to the “Tafsīr al-Jīlānī” (see the last row). |
| 1127/1725 | روح البيان | إسماعيل حقي البروسوي | ishārī (allusive, Ottoman) | A vast Khalwatī tafsir: classical exegesis, Sufi allusions, poetry (Arabic/Persian/Turkish), anecdotes. |
| 1224/1809 | البحر المديد في تفسير القرآن المجيد | ابن عجيبة | ishārī (allusive, Shādhilī) | For each passage: the literal sense (ẓāhir) then the spiritual allusion (ishāra); a readable pedagogical synthesis. |
| 1270/1854 | روح المعاني | الآلوسي | mixed (classical + ishārī, allusive) | A complete classical exegesis followed by an ishārī section at the end of each passage; a “straddling” work. |
| 1327/1909 | بيان السعادة في مقامات العبادة | سلطان محمد الجنابادي (سلطان عليشاه) | ʿirfānī (Sufi-Shia) | Reputed to be the only complete tafsir according to the Shia mystical “taste”; master of the Niʿmatullāhī Gunābādī order. |
| attrib. 561/1166 (disputed) | تفسير الجيلاني | attribué à عبد القادر الجيلاني | ishārī (allusive, pseudepigraph?) | Its authenticity is strongly doubted; scholarship links it to the work of Nakhjuwānī. See the notes. |
Further reading
- The First Revealed Sura: An Inquiry into a Problem in the Qur’anic Sciences
- Was the Prophet Illiterate? What Ummī Really Means
- The Higher Purposes of the Qur’an (Maqâsid al-Qur’ân)
- Sufi Tafsîr: Reading the Qur’an from Within
Go further
These topics come to life once you can read the language of the Qur’an. Our method Qur’anic Arabic guides you step by step, from the alphabet to reading the verses — on your own or with our courses.