When it comes to defining a Arabic term such as this word, one must go to the root of the word to see what it means. The word tafseer, comes from the root fasar which means to uncover or display. Now, when one is going to uncover or display something, which was previously somewhat covered and hard to comprehend, then it will be like clarifying or expounding that thing. So this leads to explaining what the thing is by laying it out in the open. In the Quran the word tafseer is used as further explanation for this word,

Allah (SWT) says (what may be translated into);

" For any parable they bring, I will bring you the truth and a better explanation (tafseerun)" [1]

So here the term means to explain. In the area of Ulum al-Quran, this term is defined as a branch of knowledge by which the Quran is understood, its meanings explained, and its points of law and wisdom derived. [2]

Now that the definition of tafseer has been clarified, one must go on to understand why tafseer is so important and how is it done.

Importance and Methodology of Tafseer

There are many reasons why it is so important for knowledgeable people to provide us with tafseers of the Quran. This is a general statement for all Muslims whether they be English-speaking or Arabic-speaking. Everyone needs to understand the Quran and without expounding and clarifying the meanings of it, it is impossible to understand all of it. The Arabic-speaking individual might think that they need no explanation of the Quran, but they will be in grave error to think so. Firstly, because the language of the Quran is a special Arabic that was spoken at the time it was revealed, by the people who witnessed the revelations. This language is not spoken anymore, it is almost non-existent in the world except for what is in the Quran. Also certain Arabic words can have multiple meanings, so if one does not research the meaning behind a certain word in a certain verse, then they might very wrongly interpret it. It has to be understood that many portions of the Quran are pretty clear and self-explanatory and need not be explained, but other parts may lead to some major confusion if the person does not know, who the verse is referring to, what the story is, in what time period did this take place? This is called Azbaab un-Nuzul. To know all of this, implies that one must seek knowledge of the Quran from the proper sources of tafseer.

Further studying leads to the concern of how one must judge if a tafseer is written properly or not. This is not an easy task to do, but after knowing how a tafseer is initially supposed to be written it should make it somewhat more apparent to the reader when they see something wrong in it. It has to first be understood that the Quran is one Book and it has one meaning or message. It cannot be one Book with many different implications. So if there are many tafseer books and they are all different, it should be understood that all of them cannot be correct. A tafseer cannot be written on someone?s mere knowledge of the deen. They cannot pick up Allah?s book and start to interpret its meanings however they understand it. The reason is that is someone misinterprets the Quran then they are attributing something to Allah?s speech which Allah (SWT) never said. This is indeed a grave sin, for Allah (SWT) has stated in the Quran (what may be translated to mean),

"Who can be more wicked then one who invents a lie against Allah?.." [3]

and,

"And yet among men are such as dispute about Allah without knowledge and flow every Satan obstinate in rebellion" [4]

and,

"While they have no knowledge thereof. They follow but a conjecture and verily conjecture avails nothing against Truth." [5]

So here we can see Allah warning us over and over again not to speak of the religion or about Him without knowledge. We must understand that there was only one human being who ever lived and had the compete understanding of the Quran. That was Abul Qaasim Muhammad bin Abdullah (SAW), and he was the last Messenger of Allah. He was sent to us in order to expound and clarify the Quran so the people living in his time could learn it, implement it, and then pass it on to the following generations. We have to understand though, that he did not explain the Quran, word for word. The reason for this is that the Quran was sent down in the language of the Quresh, which were the first tribe to witness the early revelations. Secondly, because they witnessed the events pertaining to the revelations they did not need clarification for why and when a certain surah was revealed. This does not mean that the Prophet (SAW) did not explain any of the Quran because he did, there were many surahs and ayat that confused certain sahabah and therefore they had to be explained to them. Also different sahabah moved in from different parts of the world and they might not have witnessed the early revelations and therefore needed to know the history. It should be understood also, that the Prophet (SAW) did not really need to "explain" every aspect of the Quran, because the sahabah used to watch him really closely in everything he did. So like the hadeeth of Ayesha (ra) states that, "He (SAW) was a living Quran". This means that his way of teaching the others was to act and live according to the Quran and then others would watch him and do the same.

This leads to the discussion of when tafseers were actually needed. After the death of the Prophet (SAW) when the sahabah moved around the world to teach Muslims about their religion, they started to do tafseer of the Quran. This was an attempt to make the people understand their religion better. The sahabah though, did not have many differences in the interpretations of the meanings in the Quran. Surely they had different methods of performing tafseer, some chose certain examples over others, others had a different set of words to describe something, but these things never contradicted the real direct meaning of an ayat or surah. The sahabah had a certain methodology that they followed and this was the same methodology they passed on to the next generation to come. This methodology was of three "major" categories:

Firstly, they would try and understand the Quran in light of other verses of the Quran

Secondly, they would understand the Quran in light of the Prophetic traditions that they had preserved with them.

Thirdly, they would understand the Quran in light of the Arabic language.

There were some other ways they included in their tafseers, such as certain stories from the People of the Book which were backed up in the Quran and Sunnah, or they would sometimes use personal ijtehad (this was very limited) little to none. They feared saying anything about the Quran with opinion because they knew what a big sin it would be upon them. As Abu Bakr (ra) used to say, when asked a question about a verse from the Quran, "What earth would carry me and what sky would shade me if I should speak about the Quran with my opinion or by something I do not know". And Umar (ra) was known to say, "Beware of using your opinions in religious matters". [6]

As for the three main sources of tafseer, they all agreed upon and they all used this methodology to make sure they stuck tot he truth. For us on the other hand, we must add something to this methodology. Since the sahabah are no longer living here to teach us, we have to use their teachings in our tafseers too. We know that there are not people more knowledgeable like the sahabah such as Ibn Abbas, Ibn Mas?ud, Ali ibn Abu Talib, Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, Ubay ibn Kaab and many more. There are many authentic hadeeth, where the Prophet (SAW) explained the knowledge and characters of these men and he ordered us to follow them after him. So we have to use the Quran, the Sunnah, the explanations of the Sahabah and their students, and then we can use the Arabic language, insha?allah. This is the same methodology every writer of tafseer is supposed to be using but as we look at some major translations of the Quran, we will come to know how many of them are lacking in this area.

Comparison of English Translations/Tafseer

One of the major signs of a translation or tafseer that has not followed the methodology of the sahabah is that it will have mistakes in the area of Aqeedah. This is what the focus of this comparison will be on. Major mistakes in the area of Allah?s Attributes or His Being. As the followers of the Prophet (SAW), as the Ahlus-Sunnah we believe what he has told us about Allah and what his companions have explained to us on this issue. That is, that when it comes to the Quran we are supposed to understand the literal text of the meanings, UNLESS it has to do with Allah?s attributes. What is meant by Allah?s attributes is His hands, face, shin, His Arsh, His Kursi, His Istawa (ascension) etc. Whenever the Quran says anything about these attributes we take their apparent meaning and become silent about them. We do not make ta?weel and expound and clarify these things. The reason is that how can we expound and clarify something which we never seen and have no knowledge about? Therefore if we see that it says Allah has hands, we say "Allah has hands", the same goes for other attributes. We do not say, "hands like ours", because the Quran tells us "There is nothing like unto Him". In the same way, we do not negate these attributes and say, "there is no such thing". This is usually the way of the Mu?tazillites and also some A?sharites. This is not the way of the Ahlus-Sunnah.

As we take a closer look at the following comparison of tafseers and translations, the reader may judge for themselves what is correct and what is incorrect.

Let us begin with the most popular of English tafseers in describing the few ayat from Surah al-Baqarah, known as Ayat ul-Kursi. The ayat are as follows,

"Allah! None has the right to be worshipped but He, the Ever Living, the One Who sustains and protects all that exists. Neither slumber nor sleep overtake Him??.until it ends with?. His "kursi" extends over the heavens and the earth, and He feels no fatigue in guarding and preserving them. And He is the Most High, the Most Gracious" [7]

As we will see, the main focus here will be on how the word "kursi" has been described in the following translations.