Select Chapters of Itqan on the Language of the Qur’an

This book amounts to one quarter of a pivotal, encyclopaedic work in Quranic Sciences (‘ulūm al-Qur’ān), which systematised its topics and influenced all subsequent writings in the field. Its author is among the most prolific in Islamic history, with up to a thousand works under his name in all the major Islamic sciences. These chapters (36-42) of al-Itqān fī ‘Ulūm al-Qur’ān by Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī are at the very core of uṣūl al-tafsīr, the methods involved in interpreting the Arabic Qur’an.

This unique bilingual edition serves not only as a personal guide, but as a training manual for the would-be Qur’an scholar and translator. It begins by looking at how individual words are understood, taking into account the possibilities of dialects and internal variation in the scripture. Then comes a detailed chapter on grammatical particles, followed by productive rules and instructive examples – including errors and points of debate – all of which make this an indispensible reference for advanced study of the Qur’an.

Sohaib Saeed is the founder and director of the Ibn ‘Ashur Centre for Quranic Studies, and a specialist in Qur’an translation and interpretation. After his degree in Tafsīr and Quranic Sciences from al-Azhar University, he completed a PhD at SOAS, London, which was the basis for his book Explaining the Qur’an Through the Qur’an (Edinburgh University Press). He is the award-winning translator of The Great Exegesis of Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī and other classical works, and he provides expertise to global institutions including Quran.Foundation and Bayyinah Institute.