Tafsir al-Qurtubi – Vol. 6 Sūrat al-Mā’idah

Title: Tafsir al-Qurtubi – Vol. 6 Sūrat al-Mā’idah
Author: Abū ‘Abdullāh Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Abī Bakr ibn Farḥ al-Anṣārī al-Khazrajī al-Andalusī al-Qurṭubī / Translated by Aisha Bewley
ISBN: 9781914397004
Publisher: Diwan Press (UK)

The tafsīr of al-Qurṭubī is perhaps one of the most compendious of them all and is certainly among the most famous. As its title, al-Jāmi‘ li Aḥkām al-Qur’ān – The General Judgments of the Qur’an, suggests, its main focus is on the rulings and judgments to be found in the Qur’ān. However, in the course of doing that, al-Qurṭubī examines all the relevant sciences necessary, such as the ḥadīth pertaining to the āyahs, events in the sīrah, what the Companions, their Followers and other noted people of knowledge said about the āyahs, essential aspects of Arabic etymology, syntax and usage, copiously illustrated by examples, and much more.

This volume covers Sūrat al-Mā’idah in its entirety. Among its subjects are the āyāts on dietary matters. The sūrah also recounts the primordial event of the two sons of Adam and their strife. Perhaps the most substantial section is a sustained address to the People of the Book while also considering many issues to do with Muslims’ relations with them. Then there is the great āyat announcing the completion of the dīn. The sūrah concludes with the account of the Prophet ‘Īsā, peace be upon him, and his disciples and of the Table sent down from Heaven.

About the Author:

Abū ‘Abdullāh Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Abī Bakr ibn Farḥ al-Anṣārī al-Khazrajī al-Andalusī al-Qurṭubī (610-11 AH/1214 CE – 671 AH/1273 CE) was born in Cordoba in Spain, but moved in 1236 to Cairo in Egypt, where he lived until his death. He was Mālikī in fiqh, and although he composed other works, he is most famous for this tafsīr.

About the Translator:

Aisha Bewley is the translator of a large number of classical works of Islam and Sufism, often in collaboration with Abdalhaqq Bewley, notably The Noble Qur’an – a New Rendering of Its Meanings in English; Muhammad, Messenger of Allah – the translation of Qāḍī ‘Iyāḍ’s ash-Shifā’; the Muwaṭṭa’ of Imam Mālik ibn Anas; and Imam an-Nawawī’s Riyāḍ aṣ-Ṣāliḥīn.