Taysir al-Karim al-Rahman fi Tafsir Kalam al-Mannan (Tafsir al-Sa'di)

Taysir al-Karim al-Rahman fi Tafsir Kalam al-Mannan ("The Facilitation of the Generous, the Merciful, in Interpreting the Speech of the Bountiful") is a complete commentary on the Qur'an by Shaykh Abd al-Rahman ibn Nasir al-Sa'di (1307–1376 AH), known as Tafsir al-Sa'di. ¹ On the cover of volume 1 of his own copy al-Sa'di wrote that he began it "at the start of the month ( ) of 1342 AH", and that its title is taken from two verses on making the Qur'an easy and on the best of explanations. ²

In his preface al-Sa'di says that what interpretation should do is "make the meaning the aim and the wording a means to it": look at the context and what the passage was given for, compare it with its parallel elsewhere, and remember that it was given to guide all people, learned and unlearned, townsmen and Bedouin; and that attention to the context, together with knowledge of the Prophet ﷺ's circumstances and his conduct with his Companions and his enemies at the time of revelation, is among the greatest aids to understanding it, especially with the sciences of Arabic. ³ He says he wished to set down what he could of interpretation "as a reminder for those who study, a tool for those who seek insight and a help for those on the path", and that he did not occupy himself with analysing words and constructions because earlier commentators had done that for those after them. ³ In a note written on the cover of volume 1 he explains that at every verse he gives the meanings that come to him rather than relying on what he said at earlier places, because the Qur'an is mathani, repeating its reports, stories and rulings. ⁴

Abd Allah ibn Abd al-Aziz ibn Aqil describes it as easy in expression and clear in its pointers, explaining the intended meaning concisely without digressions, stories, Israelite reports or grammatical analysis except rarely, while giving weight to the creed of the early generations and to deriving rulings, legal principles and points of fiqh. ⁵ Muhammad ibn Salih al-Uthaymin lists its merits: ease of expression; avoidance of padding; avoidance of mentioning disagreements unless strong; following the early generations in the verses on the divine attributes; precision of deduction — from the ablution verse in Surat al-Ma'ida alone he derived fifty rulings; and its being a book of moral formation as well as interpretation. ⁶

The editor Abd al-Rahman ibn Mu'alla al-Luwayhiq says that, as far as he could establish, only two copies were ever made: the author's own, in nine volumes, mostly in his hand and bearing his corrections; and a second he had copied, in eight parts in several hands — volume 6 copied by Muhammad ibn Mansur ibn Ibrahim ibn Zamil, who finished it on 24 Rajab 1345 AH. ^{2 7 8}

Ibn Aqil says that he heard parts of the commentary orally from the shaykh in his study circles at the Great Mosque of Unayza and was among those who urged him to print it; volume 5 alone was printed in his lifetime, in 1375 AH, by al-Matba'a al-Salafiyya in Egypt, and the rest after his death in 1376 and 1377 AH, with Ibn Aqil's help while he was judge of Unayza. ⁵ The editor quotes al-Sa'di's letter to Shaykh Muhammad Nasif dated 30 Safar 1374 AH, asking him to have five thousand copies of volume 5 printed and leaving him the choice of printer, Muhibb al-Din al-Khatib or Shaykh Hamid; al-Sa'di had given that volume an introduction and closed it with principles and general rules of interpretation. ⁹

The author's sons and the editor say that the next printing, corrected by Muhammad Zuhri al-Najjar, became the basis of all later printings, and that scholars noted in it and in the Salafiyya printing errors, omissions and additions that came to light when collated against the two manuscripts; Shaykh Muhammad ibn Sulayman al-Bassam devoted a treatise to this, Kashf al-Sitar 'an Talfiq wa-Ta'liq al-Najjar. ^{10 8 11} The editor lists the kinds of intervention: completing verses the author had only pointed to, changing the division into volumes, unmarked changes of wording, and mistaken corrections. ^{12 13}

The museum used the Obeikan (Riyadh) 1st edition of 1422 AH / 2001, edited by al-Luwayhiq from both manuscripts on the basis of the author's own copy (A), which stayed with him until his death; he says he read the commentary in collation three times over three years, and did not reference the hadith because most of them are from the two Sahihs. ^{14 15 16} The author's sons endorsed this edition as the one to be relied on. ¹⁰

At the end of the commentary al-Sa'di records that he completed it at the beginning of Rabi' I 1344 AH. ¹⁷ The edition adds 'Principles and generalities of exegesis that no exegete of the Qur'an can do without': rules on what words signify — such as the generality of an indefinite noun after a negation, and that the general wording governs rather than the particular occasion — together with generalities on the Qur'an's meanings and definitions of its terms; see principles and rules of exegesis. ^{18 19 20}