Tafsir al-Iji Jami al-Bayan fi Tafsir al-Quran
- Author died
- 905 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya
Jami al-Bayan fi Tafsir al-Quran (Arabic: جامع البيان في تفسير القرآن, lit. 'The Comprehensive Exposition in the Exegesis of the Quran'), also known as Tafsir al-Iji and recorded in bibliographical sources as Jawami al-Tibyan fi al-Tafsir, is a complete Quranic commentary by the Shafi'i scholar Mu'in al-Din Muhammad ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Iji (d. 905 AH / 1499–1500 CE; also reported as 906 AH) .
Composition and Circumstances
The inception of the work was connected to the author's father, Safi al-Din Abd al-Rahman ibn Muhammad al-Iji (d. 864 AH), who had begun writing an exegesis on Surah al-An'am but stopped after producing brief excerpts, instructing his son that he was commanded to undertake the task . After prolonged hesitation, al-Iji performed the prayer of consultation (istikharah) at the Multazam and the Mustajar beside the Kaaba in Mecca .
According to Haji Khalifa, al-Iji commenced the writing in the Prophet's Mosque in Medina (al-Rawdah al-Sharifah) on 2 Jumada al-Akhirah 904 AH and completed it on 25 Ramadan 905 AH . Al-Iji states in his preface that the composition took two years and three months, completing it when he reached forty years of age .
Scope, Method, and Sources
Al-Iji intended the work as a concise yet self-sufficient commentary that avoided unnecessary prolixity while delivering core exegetical points to contemporary students . He characterized his book as balanced in wisdom and knowledge, purged of Mu'tazilite theology and philosophy (al-i'tizal wa-l-falsafah), and grounded in transmitted interpretations from the early generations (salaf) .
Methodologically, al-Iji emphasized reliance on sound transmitted reports and criticized exegetes such as al-Zamakhshari for dismissing authentic prophetic traditions when failing to grasp their literal or semantic relevance . In authenticating narrations, he prioritized the exegesis of Ibn Kathir (Tafsir al-Quran al-Azim) due to Ibn Kathir's critical scrutiny of transmission chains; whenever discrepancies arose between Ibn Kathir and al-Baghawi's Ma'alim al-Tanzil, al-Iji consulted specialist works of hadith authentication, noting that al-Baghawi occasionally included reports considered weak or fabricated by later scholars .
Al-Iji specified several textual conventions in his introduction:
- Interpretations introduced with the disjunctive particle "or" (aw) represent transmitted views of the early generations (salaf) .
- Opinions introduced with the passive formula "it is said" (qila) are mostly unverified deductions of later scholars .
- In grammatical analysis (i'rab), he generally restricted himself to the most prominent construction, mentioning multiple possibilities only when they conveyed a notable rhetorical subtlety .
The author enumerated his primary sources as: al-Baghawi's Ma'alim al-Tanzil, al-Wahidi's al-Wasit, Tafsir Ibn Kathir, al-Nasafi's Madarik al-Tanzil, al-Zamakhshari's al-Kashshaf alongside its supercommentaries by al-Tibi, Akmal al-Din al-Babarti (al-Kashf), and Sa'd al-Din al-Taftazani, as well as al-Baydawi's Anwar al-Tanzil wa-Asrar al-Ta'wil .
Commentary and Editions
The work was equipped with extensive marginal glosses (hashiyah) by Muhammad al-Ghaznawi, who analyzed its theological points and traced its hadith citations . It was published in Pakistan with al-Ghaznawi's glosses, edited by Munir Ahmad . A four-volume edition was published in Beirut by Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyyah (1424 AH / 2004 CE), introduced by Abd al-Hamid Hindawi .
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