—confirming her words—“and that is exactly what they do.” (27:34)

A poet has said:
“Never scorn a view that accords with sound truth
even if it issues from a lesser man;
For the pearl—most precious of all possessions—
is not cheapened by the wretched state of the diver.”

This book, in addition, embraces further matters: the elucidation of certain linguistic questions together with the morphology and syntax they require; citations of Arabic poetry and the juridical principles they illustrate; and discussion of the chains of transmission of hadith—as you will see, God willing.

Know that the modes of exposition collected in this blessed work are exceedingly numerous. In this translation we wish to present a sampling of them so the reader may appreciate how richly this book explains the Qur’an by the Qur’an, and thereby grasp, in broad outline, the benefit it offers before surveying the whole.

After that we shall give an introduction defining concision and clarification, touching briefly on the issues pertinent to them, and then, God willing, proceed to the main purpose, following the order of the surahs of the Majestic Qur’an.

We pray to the Generous Lord—despite our shortcomings—that He include us among those described in the Prophet’s statement, authentically recorded in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī on the authority of the Commander of the Believers ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān: “The best of you are those who learn the Qur’an and teach it,” and in another wording, “The most excellent of you are those who learn the Qur’an and teach it.” We also ask Him, exalted is He, to grant us success in acting upon what we have learned from His Book, to endow us with the noble qualities it contains, to train us in its etiquette, to teach us what we do not know, to remind us of what we have forgotten, and to grant us sincerity