Tafseer; Smelting Words to Find Hidden Meaning
The science of Tafseer, whose subject is interpretation of the Quran, is one of the broadest fields in Islamic sciences.
Tafseer comes from the root word of Fisr, which in Semitic languages means smelting something and in later usage also assumed the meaning of interpretation of dreams.
There is a metaphor in this meaning as it likens interpretation to smelting ore to extract precious stone.
Except for Muqatta’at (combinations of between one and five Arabic letters figuring at the beginning of 29 out of the 114 chapters of the Quran), the verses of the Quran are such that they convey a first meaning upon reading them. What is referred to as Tafseeri (interpretational) meaning is the result of knowledge or skill that goes beyond the normal knowledge of the language.
The first example of works known as Tafseer al-Quran date back to the 8th century (between 750 and 770 AD). They include a combination of interpretational views of Sahabah (companions of the Holy Prophet (PBUH)) and Tabeun (the generation of Muslims who followed the companions). The authors also included their own Tafseeri views.
Such works were written in Iraq, Mecca and Khorasan (now northeast Iran). These are regions where erudition was rooted. In other regions which were more traditional, such as the Levant and Medina, it took Mufaseers (interpreters) much longer to write Tafseer books.
After the establishment of major Islamic schools such as Al-Azhar, Nizamiyah schools, and others, in the 10th and 11th centuries AD, significant developments occurred religious education. Seminaries and Islamic schools taught different sciences and redefined the status and function of each science.
Authors of Tafseer books at the time were scholars in different fields of knowledge. They included topologists, Faqihs (jurisprudents), Hadiths scholars, and literary scholars. This is an indication that they believed a one-sided view in interpretation of the Quran should be abandoned and different fields of knowledge should be used in Quran interpretation.
That is why the relation between Tafseer and other fields such as theology and Fiqh became and instrumental one starting from the 12th century and Tafseer became known as an independent field of knowledge that uses the achievements of other fields.
The 12th century is one in which Quran interpreters sought to organize the foundations and bases of interpretation, internalize the achievements of other fields and use them in an integrated and coordinated structure.
The first steps on that path included writing brief or long introductions by the interpreters in their Tafseer books. In those introductions, they mentioned topics that were the type of subjects later known as Quranic sciences.
