تفسير التحرير والتنوير-ابن حزم

Tafsir al-Tahrir wa-al-Tanwir

al-Taḥrīr wa’l-Tanwīr is the monumental Qurʾānic commentary of the eminent Tunisian Mālikī scholar Muḥammad al-Ṭāhir ibn ʿĀshūr (1296–1394 AH / 1879–1973). The culmination of some forty to fifty years of study and reflection, it was his final major work and magnum opus.

Ibn ʿĀshūr approaches the Qurʾān through a broad range of disciplines, with particular emphasis on Arabic language, grammar, morphology and balāghah, alongside Ḥadīth, Qirāʾāt, Uṣūl al-Fiqh, history and Kalām. His interpretation is strongly maqāṣid-oriented: he regards the Qurʾān’s highest purpose as the reform of the individual, society and civilisation, and identifies among its principal objectives the correction of belief, refinement of character, legislation, governance, lessons from earlier nations, admonition and the demonstration of the Qurʾān’s inimitability.

The work opens with ten important muqaddimāt on the principles of Tafsīr, addressing such subjects as Tafsīr and Taʾwīl, the legitimacy and limits of tafsīr bi’l-raʾy, Asbāb al-Nuzūl, Qirāʾāt and Iʿjāz al-Qurʾān. Ibn ʿĀshūr does not simply reproduce earlier interpretations, but critically evaluates them and deliberately seeks to uncover new interpretive subtleties (nukat). He also maintains that a Qurʾānic expression may intentionally accommodate several complementary meanings, regarding this richness of meaning as an aspect of the Qurʾān’s inimitability.

Perhaps the most distinctive feature of the tafsīr is its exceptionally detailed treatment of Qurʾānic language and rhetoric. Ibn ʿĀshūr examines vocabulary, derivation, grammatical constructions, word order, particles and the subtleties of Arabic usage, frequently citing pre-Islamic and early Islamic poetry as linguistic evidence. His extensive discussions of balāghah and bayān seek to demonstrate the precision of Qurʾānic expression and the rhetorical dimensions of its iʿjāz.

Each sūrah begins with an introduction discussing its names, period and circumstances of revelation, contents and principal objectives. Ibn ʿĀshūr then examines individual verses or connected groups of verses, paying close attention to their language, iʿrāb, rhetoric, context and munāsabah. Although principally a work of tafsīr bi’l-raʾy, he also makes substantial use of the Qurʾān itself, ḥadīths and early transmitted interpretations, while engaging relevant questions of Fiqh, ʿAqīdah, Qirāʾāt, Asbāb al-Nuzūl, Naskh and history.

Drawing particularly upon al-Zamakhsharī, Ibn ʿAṭiyyah, Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī and al-Ālūsī, while critically assessing their conclusions and adding his own insights, al-Taḥrīr wa’l-Tanwīr occupies a distinctive place among modern works of Tafsīr. It is especially valuable for advanced students of Tafsīr, Qurʾānic Arabic, Balāghah, Iʿjāz al-Qurʾān and Maqāṣid, combining deep engagement with the classical exegetical tradition with Ibn ʿĀshūr’s independent linguistic and analytical scholarship.