Discover the meaning of the term At-tafsir (تفسير) in Islamic vocabulary.
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Updated on 11 April 2026 at 1:05 AM
📖 3 min readIn origin: disclosure and manifestation. In the Law: clarifying the meaning of the verse, its status, its account and the reason for its revelation, in wording that plainly indicates it.
It is the intensive form of fassar, which is disclosure and manifestation; what is meant is an unambiguous disclosure, namely certainty of the intended meaning; hence interpretation by mere opinion is forbidden. In the Law: clarifying the meaning of the verse, its status, its account and the reason for its revelation, in wording that plainly indicates it. It is said: ta'wil is the consideration of an evidence by which the meaning becomes more probable than the apparent meaning; hence interpreting the Quran by opinion is not forbidden, for it is probability of the intended meaning, and transferring the statement from the apparent without certainty. Close to that: ta'wil
It is clarification and disclosure, and expressing a thing in wording easier and simpler than the original wording. In usage: a science in which one investigates the states of the noble Quran regarding its indication of the purpose of Allah, the Most High, according to human capacity. Abu al-Baqa' defined it as: a science in which one investigates how to pronounce the words of the Quran, their meanings, its singular and composite rules, and its composite senses. Al-Jurjani said: clarifying the meaning of the verse, its status, its account and the cause of its revelation, in wording that plainly indicates it. ("al-Futuhat al-Ilahiya" of al-Jamal 2/1, "al-Kulliyat" p. 260, 261, and "at-Ta'rifat" p. 55).
It is the discourse (5 / a) on the causes of the verse's revelation, its status, its account and its rulings, by way of transmission.
In language: disclosure and manifestation. In the Law: clarifying the meaning of the verse, its status, its account and the cause of its revelation, in wording that plainly indicates it; mentioned by Ibn al-Kamal (at-Ta'rifat, p. 65). And ar-Raghib said (al-Mufradat, p. 380): tafsir may denote what is specific to individual words and their rarity, and what is specific to ta'wil; hence one says "tafsir of the vision" and "ta'wil of the vision". Some defined tafsir as the science investigating the states of the mighty Book. And Ibn al-Jawzi (Abu al-Faraj ibn al-Jawzi, d. 597 AH, author of many works including "Zad al-Musafir fi 'ilm at-tafsir" and "al-Muntazam" in history; Ibn Khallikan, "al-Wafayat" 3/140) said: tafsir brings the thing out of its known concealment into the place of manifestation, and ta'wil transfers the statement from its place to what requires a proof to establish, otherwise the wording would have been left apparent.
In origin: disclosure and manifestation.