Tafsir al-Basit

Al-Tafsir al-Basit (Arabic: التفسير الباسط, lit. 'The Large Commentary') is one of the earliest exhaustive classical Sunni Qur'anic interpretational works (tafsir) composed by the 11th century Islamic scholar, al-Wahidi. It is both his most important work, and by far the largest of his Qur’an commentaries consisting of 25 volumes.

Tafsir al-Basit

Author	Al-Wahidi
Language	Arabic
Subject	Tafsir
Publisher	Dar al-Musawsar al-Arabi
Publication date	2013
Pages	13941
Followed by	Tafsir al-Wasit

This book is categorised as al-Tafsir al-Tahlili (analytical commentary). The reason is that Al-Wahidi thoroughly examines verse by verse, mufrad by mufrad, utilizing only grammar and language in general.

Background

He began working on al-Basit; in his introduction to that work he makes clear that he began writing it early in his life and after Al-Tha'labi's death. In his colophon to al-Basit, he states that he began writing in the year of 427/1035 and he finished the work on 20 Rab'i 446/29 June 1054; the work thus took almost two decades to complete (nineteen years to be exact).

Methodology

The scientific richness contained in the book, especially in the field of linguistics and grammar, as al-Wahidi began his book with the mindset that language, grammar, and literature are the basic pillars for interpreting the Book of God. After he had mastered those pillars, he began to harness them to serve interpretation; by clarifying the Qur'anic word, explaining its origin, and mentioning evidence for that. He also linked the interpretive aspect to grammar, and mentioned the rhetorical aspects in the Qur'anic system. The book came out as an encyclopedia that combined interpretation with the branches of language, and harnessed the latter to serve the former. It is true that al-Wahidi was carried away by some of those issues to the point of being considered a departure from the field of interpretation, but nevertheless the book remains a flowing gift in the field of interpretation with knowledge that relies on language and grammar as the foundations for understanding the Qur'anic text. The interpretation of “Al-Basit” occupies a high scientific position in the Quranic library, and is considered an important reference for specialists in Quranic interpretation. However, the book can only be used by scholars and students of knowledge who have acquired the ability to understand its deep linguistic and grammatical research. As for the general readers, they are with this book, as Al-Wahidi described them, “like someone trying to lock a door but has lost the key.”

Legacy

It is the first clear rejection of the conventional answer, the encyclopaedic method developed by al-Tabari and refined and popularised by al-Tha'labi. Al-Basit is the first attempt in tafsir to address the crisis facing Quranic interpretation by outlining a more comprehensive philological reading. This mode of interpretation would heavily influence later scholars such as al-Zamakhshari whose work Al-Kashshaaf is considered a re-work of Tafsir al-Basit. One of the main objectives of the Nishapuri exegetical school is to provide a consistently Ash'arite interpretation of the Quran's theology in opposition to the Mu'tazilite interpretation. Al-Tha'labi and al-Wahidi were the first exegetes to utilize kalam as a means of theological polemics against other opposing sects, and al-Razi carried on their work directly. It is also known al-Razi's famous tafsir Mafatih al-Ghayb was heavily reliant on al-Basit.

Translation

• Al-Wahidi (2013). Aims, Methods and Contexts of Qur’ anic Exegesis (2nd/8th–9th/15th c.). Translated by Walid Saleh (1st ed.). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199670642.