SOME FEATURES OF MAWDUDI'S TAFHIM AL-QUR'AN

Abstract

Abul-A'la Mawdudi (1903-79) was a leading Muslim scholar of the twentiethcentury. He has written extensively on a variety of Islamic subjects.He wrote in Urdu, but his works, quite a few of which have been translatedinto other language, have exercised deep influence on educated classes,especially the youth, in many parts of the Muslim world. Though essentiallya scholar of the traditional mold, Mawdudi, unlike many other Muslimscholars, is alive to the problems of modernity as they confront the Islamicworld. It is this combination of the traditional and modern strains, and hisskillful exposition of Islam, that makes him one of the most widely read Muslimauthors of today.*Tafhim al-Quran ~ a six volume commentary on the Qur’an, is Mawdudi‘smagnum opus. It is not only a treasury of information, it is also a distillateof Mawdudi‘s thought. In writing Tafhim, as he says in the Preface to the book,Mawdudi has in mind the needs of those educated laymen who wish to understandthe message of the Qur’an but lack access to the original Arabic sourceson the subject; the word tafhim, which means ”to make someone understand,”aptly describes the nature of the book. The following pages analyzesome of the features of the work.A Modern CommentaryEven a cursory reading of Tafhim im would show that the work is a “modern”one. Most Urdu Qur’an commentaries present a ”traditional” look in that theylack methodical arrangement of material. Tafhim seems to satisfy many ofthe formal requirements one expects a book of this kind to meet. A typicalpage of Tafhim is divided into three portions: one for the Qur’anic text; onefor the translation; and one for notes. It is thus possible to read the translationuninterruptedly - a convenience appreciated by those familiar with theirksome pattern of interlinear Urdu translations of the Qur’an. The translationis presented in logical paragraphs. Occasionally, extended quotations areset off from the main text, even given in smaller print. Each volume has adetailed analytical index of subjects treated in the notes. There are 32 mapsof historic routes and important geographical locations, and 12 black-and-whitephotographs, most of them of buildings of Thamudan style of architecture.There are copious cross-references.Again, most of the Urdu Qur’an commentaries employ a highly Arabicizedand Persianized idiom that proves to be prohibitive to most common readers.Tafhim is written in a style that an average reader not only finds comprehensible,but also delightful. Tafhim has been called the first best-selling Urdu ...