al-Ziyada wal-Ihsan fi Ulum al-Quran
- Author died
- 1150 AH
- Editions
- Markaz al-Buḥūth wa-al-Dirāsāt Jāmi‘at al-Shāriqah al-Imārāt
al-Ziyada wal-Ihsan fi Ulum al-Quran (Addition and Excellence in the Sciences of the Quran) is a comprehensive encyclopedic compendium on Quranic sciences by the Meccan Hanafi scholar and hadith specialist Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Sa'id al-Hanafi al-Makki, known as Ibn Aqilah (d. 1150 AH / 1737–1738 CE) .
Background and Purpose
The work was composed as an expansion, refinement, and restructuring of al-Itqan fi Ulum al-Quran by Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti (d. 911 AH) . In his introduction, Ibn Aqilah praised al-Itqan as an extraordinary milestone in the genre, noting that al-Suyuti had gathered eighty concise categories of Quranic sciences . Ibn Aqilah sought to build upon al-Suyuti's foundation by breaking down condensed subjects into independent branches, adding overlooked topics, and refining existing discussions .
Structure and Method
Ibn Aqilah arranged the book into 154 distinct types (anwa') of Quranic sciences, observing in his preface that had he elaborated them even further, they would have exceeded four hundred types .
The structure covers a broad range of textual, linguistic, and interpretive disciplines:
- Revelation and Transmission: Categories covering the nature of revelation (wahy), its onset, the descent of the Quran from the Preserved Tablet to the lowest heaven, the order and chronology of revelation (the first and last revealed verses), and classifications of verses by location and circumstance (Meccan and Medinan, diurnal and nocturnal, summer and winter, resident and travel) .
- Textual History and Orthography: The compilation of the Quran, counts of surahs, verses, words, and letters, differences among regional codices (masahif), vocalization and diacritical pointing (dabt and naqt), and the rules and ethics of copying the text .
- Recitation and Phonetics (Qira'at and Tajwid): Chains of transmission (isnad), classifications of variant readings (mutawatir, mashhur, ahad, and shadhdh), phonetic rules governing letter points of articulation (makharij), attributes (sifat), assimilation (idgham), elongation (madd), and pauses and resumption (al-waqf wal-ibtida') .
- Linguistics, Rhetoric, and Exegesis: Grammatical inflection (i'rab), lexical obscurities, rhetorical structures (such as the states of the subject and predicate, which he noted were omitted by al-Suyuti), figurative and literal language, apparent contradictions and difficult passages (mushkil al-Quran), and specific exegetical methods .
Throughout the work, Ibn Aqilah relies on extensive quotation and synthesis from earlier classical authorities, complementing them with his own arrangements and classifications .
Manuscripts and Editions
Manuscripts of al-Ziyada wal-Ihsan were preserved in Istanbul libraries, including collections at the Hekimoglu Ali Pasha and Damat Ibrahim Pasha libraries, where an autograph copy survived .
The text was critical-edited through a collaborative academic project comprising five Master's theses at Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University by Muhammad Safa Haqqi, Fahd Ali al-Andas, Ibrahim Muhammad al-Mahmud, Muslih Abd al-Karim al-Samadi, and Khalid Abd al-Karim al-Lahim . It was first published in 1427 AH / 2006 CE by the Research and Studies Center at the University of Sharjah in ten volumes, and has also been published by the Tafsir Center .
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