al-Tafsir al-Wasit lil-Wahidi
- Author died
- 468 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Kutub al-‘Ilmīyah
al-Tafsir al-Wasit lil-Wahidi (Arabic: التفسير الوسيط للواحدي, The Intermediate Commentary of al-Wahidi), also known as al-Wasit fi Tafsir al-Qur'an al-Majid, is an eleventh-century Qur'anic commentary by the Shafi'i exegete and grammarian Abu al-Hasan al-Wahidi (d. 468 AH / 1076 CE) . It serves as the middle-length work in his renowned trilogy of Qur'anic commentaries, standing between his voluminous al-Basit and his concise al-Wajiz .
Composition and Purpose
In his introduction to the work, al-Wahidi stated that he had long been requested to dictate an intermediate commentary that would moderate between the exhaustive elaboration of al-Basit—in which differing opinions and linguistic arguments were drawn out at length—and the brevity of al-Wajiz, which was restricted to concise explanations . He framed the text as a balanced median aimed at delivering sound exegetical substance free from tedious length (tatwil wa-ikthar) and deficient brevity (khalal al-wajazah wa-l-ikhtisar) . Classical biographers, such as Ibn Abi Tahir al-Qifti, characterized al-Wasit as an abridged selection derived from al-Basit .
Structure and Method
Biographers traditionally recorded al-Wasit as spanning four volumes . The work is structured sequentially according to the traditional order of the Qur'an and exhibits several distinct methodological features:
- Tradition-based Exegesis (riwayah): Unlike al-Basit (which is dominated by grammar and linguistic derivation) and al-Wajiz (which omits chains of transmission entirely), al-Wasit gives substantial attention to narrative transmission, quoting hadiths and reports (athar) from early authorities such as Ibn Abbas, Mujahid ibn Jabr, Qatadah ibn Di'amah, and al-Hasan al-Basri with their chains of transmission (asanid) .
- Reliance on al-Tha'labi: Al-Wahidi relied heavily on the commentary of his teacher, Abu Ishaq al-Tha'labi (al-Kashf wa-l-Bayan), transmitting numerous reports through him and borrowing exegetical and linguistic formulations .
- Virtues of Surahs (fada'il al-suwar): Al-Wahidi uniquely opened each Surah in al-Wasit with reports detailing its specific virtues, an inclusion he avoided in both al-Basit and al-Wajiz .
- Grammar and Variant Readings: Linguistic and grammatical points are treated concisely without the extended grammatical debates found in al-Basit, and canonical variant readings (qira'at) are mentioned in moderation without exhaustive legal and phonetic justifications .
Reception and Critique
Al-Wahidi's commentaries achieved widespread renown among scholars. Abu Hamid al-Ghazali adopted the titles of his own major Shafi'i legal works (al-Basit, al-Wasit, and al-Wajiz) directly from al-Wahidi's three tafsirs, and was reported to have remarked that whoever wished to hear tafsir as if from the mouth of the Prophet ﷺ should turn to al-Wahidi's commentary .
Later scholars nevertheless criticized the transmission of unreliable narrations in the work. Ibn Taymiyyah and Muhammad ibn Ja'far al-Kattani pointed out that while al-Wahidi's commentaries contain profound linguistic and scholarly benefits, they also transmit weak and fabricated reports, particularly the well-known sequential hadiths on the virtues of individual surahs . A critical treatise dedicated to identifying textual corruptions and altered attributions in the commentary was written by Isma'il ibn Muhammad al-Hadrami (d. 676 AH), entitled 'Umdat al-Qawi wa-l-Da'if al-Kashif lima Waqa'a fi Wasit al-Wahidi min al-Tabdil wa-l-Tahrif .
Manuscripts and Publication
Numerous manuscript copies of al-Wasit are preserved in libraries worldwide, including Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyyah in Cairo, the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin, the British Museum in London, the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich, and libraries across Istanbul, Damascus, and Mosul . An early critical edition of its first volume (covering al-Fatihah and al-Baqarah) was prepared by Muhammad Hasan Abu al-'Azm al-Zufayti and published in Egypt by the Committee for the Revival of Islamic Heritage (Lajnat Ihya' al-Turath al-Islami), while the full text was later edited across academic dissertations at Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University .
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