Mukhtasar Tafsir al-Baghawi al-Musamma bi-Maalim al-Tanzil
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- Dar al-Salam lil-Nashr wa-al-Tawzi'
Mukhtasar Tafsir al-Baghawi al-Musamma bi-Maalim al-Tanzil (The Abridgment of al-Baghawi's Commentary Named "The Milestones of Revelation") is a single-volume abridgment of al-Husayn ibn Mas'ud al-Baghawi's (d. 516 AH) Quranic commentary Ma'alim al-Tanzil, prepared by the contemporary Saudi scholar Abd Allah ibn Ahmad ibn Ali al-Zayd .
Purpose and Background
Al-Zayd undertook the work to meet the contemporary need for an accessible, reliable summary that combines traditional narrations (riwayah) and reasoned comprehension (dirayah) while adhering to orthodox creed and law . He noted that existing Quranic summaries often focused narrowly on grammar and rhetoric or indulged in extraneous disciplines, whereas al-Baghawi's original work was widely praised by scholars—including Ibn Taymiyyah and Muhammad Rashid Rida—for its adherence to the methodology of the early generations (salaf) . However, because the original text contained extensive chains of transmission, multiple overlapping narrations, and Israelite reports (isra'iliyyat), al-Zayd sought to condense it into a streamlined reference for general readers .
Methodology
Al-Zayd strictly preserved al-Baghawi's original wording, avoiding paraphrasing and inserting only minimal connecting particles inside parentheses when necessary for syntactic cohesion . Consequently, all first-person attributions (such as "we narrated" or "we were informed") remain the voice of al-Baghawi . His editorial approach entailed:
- Omitting lengthy chains of transmission (isnad) and retaining only the name of the Companion narrating from the Prophet ﷺ .
- Selecting a single hadith when al-Baghawi cited multiple traditions for a single meaning, sometimes citing only the operative segment (mawdi' al-shahid) .
- Providing hadith documentation and referencing (takhrij) .
- Retaining cross-referenced Quranic verses adduced by al-Baghawi to explain the Quran by the Quran, set off with distinct brackets .
- Purging Israelite traditions (isra'iliyyat), except those directly related by or confirmed by the Prophet ﷺ .
- Selecting from non-prophetic reports (athar) only those that directly illuminate the meaning of the verse .
- Removing certain variant Quranic readings (qira'at), particularly those whose omission does not affect the interpreted meaning .
Sources and Publication
In preparing the abridgment, al-Zayd relied primarily on the 1407 AH edition of Ma'alim al-Tanzil edited by Khalid Abd al-Rahman al-Akk and Marwan Siwar, cross-referencing problematic readings against the 1343 AH edition printed on the margins of Ibn Kathir's commentary . He also utilized the critical edition by Muhammad Abd Allah al-Nimr, Uthman Jum'ah Dumayriyyah, and Sulayman Muslim al-Harash to resolve difficult phrases and verify hadith references . The author completed an updated preface in Riyadh on 22 Ramadan 1422 AH .
The book was first published by Darussalam in Riyadh in 1416 AH (1,040 pages) . It was later reissued in a single two-color volume incorporating the complete Quranic text in standard Uthmanic script, with typographical corrections overseen by al-Zayd and the publisher's research committee .
Reception
The work received an endorsement from the scholar Salih al-Fawzan dated 13 Shawwal 1413 AH, in which he praised al-Zayd's methodology for presenting the commentary through its clearest and simplest expressions to suit contemporary readers .
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