Topic: Learn the meaning of Quran this Ramadan

[AbdRahman11]

As-Salamu Alaikum,
                            The web site below has free PDF books with Tafsir of Quran…..


Please check it out if you have some time. May Allah reward you for your effort to learn His  Book/

Your brother in Islam
Abdu Rahman

[Aussie Advisor]

Abdrahman i had to take out the link to that tafsir.

firstly, i would like to say that i am pleased in some Ayahs they acknowledged what a mutashabih ayah is and didnt take the literal meaning. Im not sure whether if it was you who wrote them or just found a link.

Anyway,for ayah 4 off surat al-hadid: 
 هُوَ الَّذِي خَلَقَ السَّمَوَاتِ وَالأَرْضَ فِي سِتَّةِ أَيَّامٍ ثُمَّ اسْتَوَى عَلَى الْعَرْشِ يَعْلَمُ مَا يَلِجُ فِي الأَرْضِ
 وَمَا يَخْرُجُ مِنْهَا وَمَا يَنزِلُ مِنَ السَّمَاء وَمَا يَعْرُجُ فِيهَا وَهُوَ مَعَكُمْ أَيْنَ مَا كُنتُمْ وَاللهُ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ بَصِيرٌ {4}
the correct meaning if  اسْتَوَى was written, that is that Allah controls, control maintains or subjugated the throne.

On the other hand i was suprised to see a few other Ayahs that they tried to give tafsir for went off track and are clearly wrong. Here are just a few:

In the Ayah just before this one, Ayah هُوَ الأَوَّلُ وَالآخِرُ وَالظَّاهِرُ وَالْبَاطِنُ وَهُوَ بِكُلِّ شَىْءٍ عَلِيمٌ {3}

They claim that the tafsir is that 'He is the manifest and the Hidden': This is clearly incorrect. We dont say Allah is the Hidden!
Rather  وَالظَّاهِرُ وَالْبَاطِنُ  means that " The One above whom nothing exists and underneath nothing exists: hence He exists without a place. 

Also, In surat Al-Baqarah Ayah 15:   وَللهِ الْمَشْرِقُ وَالْمَغْرِبُ فَأَيْنَمَا تُوَلُّواْ فَثَمَّ وَجْهُ اللهِ إِنَّ اللهَ وَاسِعٌ عَلِيمٌ {115}
They said in that link: so whereever you turn there is a face of Allah.
This is clearly wrong. You know that we dont attribute Allah with such bodily characteristics. Infact doing so is against the religion.
Imam Mujahid, the student of Ibn^abbas said that the word  وَجْهُ  means Qiblah i.e the direction of praying during the voluntary sunnah prayer while traveling and riding an animal. The mushabbiha are the ones who take it on the literal meanimg and say 'face'.

That was just a quick skim thorugh the site, And errors are still existent for that reason it had to be removed. Im not sure if you realised this errors. But we need to be extremly careful.

Otherwise happy to have other discussions, but i said we try to be really careful with links as we dont want anyone reading and believing something against the believe of Muslims.

Appreciate your understanding!

[AbdRahman11]

As-Salamu Alaikum,
                          It seems that you have only read the translation for the ayah and not read the actual tafsir. For example in Surah Baqarah for the ayah that you mentioned even though they translated "waj" to mean face, they explain in the tafsir that this does not have the literal meaning. In fact it is clearly stated in many places of the tafsir that Allah (swt) does not have a body and that He (swt) cannot be likened to the creation in any way.

                            If you look at several English translations of the Quran today you will find that they translate "waj" as face and "batin" as hidden. This is because these are the literal meanings of these words, but in the tafsir they explain the real meaning of these words.

                             So I do not think it was fair what you did. Even worse is that you are preventing the people from learning about the Quran. Do you know what a great sin it is to hide knowledge?

                              May Allah (swt) forgive you.

Abdu Rahman

[Aussie Advisor]

Well, in other words the so called tafsir you have provided in contradictory. You use the literal meaning then you tell me in the tafisr the literal meaning is not what is intended? Whats the go??

You or whoever wrote it should change it because its misleading from the onset!

Why dont you change it to just 'Waj' and dont write 'face' in english. Like were you have written 'istawa ^ala al^rsh' and didnt write sat on the throne. That was a good thing.

You think I am hidding knowledge and not being fair?? Well how would you feel if a new convert on our forum was reading and because of the poor tafsir believed that Allah has a face?? He would fall into blasphemy because of this. Imagine if he / dies with that belief?? How would you feel then?? Wouldnt you feel devastated?? I certainly would if my muslim brother or sister is misguided by my incompetent action.

As for saying that Allah is hidden, this is also wrong as i told. We are saying that Allah exists without a place then they write Allah is hidden?? Not good! I told you what وَالظَّاهِرُ وَالْبَاطِنُ
mean.

We just need to be extremely careful.

 

[AbdRahman11]

I think that what they did was to only give a word for word translation of the Arabic in the translation part of the ayah.

But then in the tafsir of the ayah they explain what is meant. So the literal meaning of word "Waj" does mean "face" and that is why they used that word in the translation. But anyone who reads the tafsir of the ayah will see that the meaning of it is not the literal meaning. May be you are right in that they should have left it as "Waj" instead of translating it but like I said if anyone reads the tafsir they will see that the literal meaning of this word cannot be taken.

I do not think people will read only the translation and not the tafsir. So I think what you fear about new Muslims becoming confused is unlikely. There is a lot in the tafsir that new Muslims can benefit from that I believe the good of it outweighs its shortcomings.

As for the word batin once again this is only the literal meaning of the word. If you read the tafsir of the ayah you will see what is really meant by it.

I agree with you that the tafsir does have shortcomings but I think it also has much good. That is why I ask you please put the link back so that the people can benefit from it. You can even put a warning if you want to tell the people about these problems that you found in it.

Jazak Allah khair.
Abdu Rahman