al-Muntakhab fi Tafsir al-Quran al-Karim
- Author died
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- Editions
- al-Majlis al-A'la lil-Shu'un al-Islamiyyah - Misr, tab' Mu'assasat al-Ahram
al-Muntakhab fi Tafsir al-Quran al-Karim (The Selected Commentary on the Holy Qur'an) is a modern Arabic exegesis of the Quran authored by a committee of scholars under the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs in Cairo, Egypt .
Origins and Composition
Following the establishment of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs under Ministerial Decree No. 20 of 1960, one of its primary objectives was the production of a simplified commentary on the Quran that avoided sectarian controversies and intricate verbal complexities, serving as an authoritative base for translation into world languages . Under Ministerial Decree No. 59 of 1960, the Egyptian Ministry of Awqaf formed the Committee for Quranic Exegesis (Lajnat Tafsir al-Quran al-Karim), comprising thirty-two scholars from al-Azhar alongside specialists in fields such as astronomy, medicine, physics, sociology, engineering, agriculture, geography, and history .
The committee was chaired by al-Sayyid Ali al-Sayyid, and its members included scholars such as Ibrahim Zaydan, Amin Abu al-Rus, Hasan Alwan, Hasanayn Makhluf, Husayn Arif, Hasan al-Sa'ati, Sayyid Sabiq, Abd al-Jalil Isa, Abd al-Rahim Farghal, Abd al-Latif al-Subki, Abd Allah al-Mashadd, and Abd al-Ghani al-Minshawi .
Method and Structure
The project was prompted by shortcomings and errors in existing translations of the Quran, caused by translators lacking proficiency in the source or target languages or lacking knowledge of related disciplines such as hadith, the occasions of revelation (asbab al-nuzul), and the prophetic biography (al-sirah al-nabawiyyah) .
To govern the composition, the committee established a methodological charter (dustur) and submitted it to prominent scholars and Islamic organizations across other countries to gather their feedback and reflect scholarly consensus . To ensure harmony across differing individual writing styles and levels of detail, a Coordination Committee (Lajnat al-Tansiq) of senior scholars oversaw the submissions, later dividing into three sub-committees to expedite progress . Concurrently, experts in disciplines such as astronomy, biology, and medicine analyzed relevant verses and provided concise scientific annotations . The resulting exegesis is characterized by concise, clear phrasing aimed at conveying the intended meaning without unnecessary complications .
Reception and Translations
Although conceived primarily as an accurate Arabic template for foreign translations, al-Muntakhab gained widespread popularity among both specialists and general readers due to its clarity and conciseness, prompting the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs to print tens of thousands of Arabic copies annually .
The work has been translated into several foreign languages. An Indonesian translation was produced by a team of university scholars including Mukhlis Muhammad Hanafi, Mukhlisan Jalal al-Din, Irfan Mas'ud Abd Allah, Abd al-Hafiz ibn Zayd, Aman Allah Abd al-Halim, Aziz Hamdan, Ahmad Zamrani, and Salim Rushdi Tjahjono, with general review by Muhammad Quraish Shihab and linguistic review by Muhammad Arifin .
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