التفاسير

The unique features that distinguish Altafsir.com are as follows:

1) Altafsir.com is entirely free to the user. It was established as a charity to spread knowledge of the Holy Quran.

2) Altafsir.com has around 100 of the greatest tafsirs (or Quranic Commentaries) in Arabic for the user to look through on the Internet.

3) All of the website’s tafsirs have been especially selected by an international panel of top Islamic scholars. The whole project is supervised by a higher committee, which includes the Shaykh of the Azhar Seyyed Mohammad Tantawi, Ayatollah Taskhiri and the Mufti of the Sultanate of Oman.

4) The tafsirs included in the project have a retail value of well over US $10,000, and obviously can be accessed anywhere, at any time, from the Internet. This will save researchers, scholars and Quran readers not only a fortune in buying these tafsirs (many of which anyway are only available in manuscript form) but also the problems of finding them, storing them and even carrying them.

5) Some of the tafsirs on this site have never been published or diacritically edited properly before. The Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute has commissioned a number of top international scholars to put in the diacritical marks (in manuscripts where they are lacking) especially for publication on Altafsir.com.

6) The project contains all the most important tafsirs from the seven madhhabs (Maliki, Hanafi, Hanbali, Shafi’i, Zeydi, Jafari, and Ibadhi) all of which the Institute’s Charter recognizes. It also includes the main theological, mystical, philosophical, linguistic and historical tafsirs of Islam, and a number of the traditional books of hadith that pertain to the excellencies of the Holy Quran and its verses (kutub fadail al-Quran).

7) Altafsir.com includes an individual introduction to each tafsir and a historical analysis of each individual Quran commentator mufassir.

8) The project also contains translations of the meanings of the Holy Quran into around 35 Islamic and non-Islamic languages.

9) The Institute is committed to the authenticity of all scripts without any changes or omissions.

10) Altafsir.com contains readings of tajwid and tartil of all the variant readings (qira’at) of the Holy Quran in all the different tonal keys (maqams), and contains them in such a way that it is possible to listen to the qira’at while seeing the text and the tafsir of one’s choice. Altafsir.com is also the first site to program the rules of recitation (ahkam al-tajwid) for the user.

11) Altafsir.com contains compendiums of every word in the Quran and a number of recitations of the Holy Quran in all the different tonal Keys (maqams) in such a way that it is possible to listen to the variant readings (qira’at) while seeing the text and the tafsir of one’s choice.

12) Altafsir.com contains for the first time every in the English language, a selection of complete translations of tafsirs commissioned especially for the project and translated by top international scholars. To date, there does not exist a single, complete and satisfactory translation of a major tafsir into English.

13) The Institute commissioned Dr. Martin Lings, the renowned Islamicist, to translate the Holy Quran into English anew especially for the website. Dr. Lings’ partial, yet invaluable translation is now available.

14) The tafsirs are arranged before they are put on the website so that the user can click on the website, type in the sura and aya number required, choose a category and then choose a particular tafsir. Thus the user will be spared the time and effort of finding the particular place in the tafsirs of a given verse. Alternatively, the user can go through each tafsir in order of suras and ayas from beginning to end on the website.

15) Altafsir.com is built to receive 100 million 'hits' a year; it is expected to be the largest Islamic website in the world.

16) The Institute developed its own Arabic software for the project, so that flicking through its pages is instant, safe, user-friendly and easy.

17) All of the instructions and comments on the website will be entirely bilingual – that is, in both Arabic and English – to accommodate users who are not proficient in either language.

18) Altafsir.com is programmed so that the user can see the Quranic text and the text of more than one tafsir at once on the same 'page'.

19) Altafsir.com will contain a number of unique special features to facilitate research, such as programs to find hadiths within the text of the tafsirs, programs to find verses from Arabic poetry within the text of the tafsirs, programs to find references to other verses from the Quran within the tafsirs, and even a program to find any single word within any or all of the tafsirs.

20) The database is stored in a flexible way enabling the website to be capable of change and thus of repair. It is also to undergo regular backup to insure there are no bugs, virus or changes in the text.

21) Altafsir.com is interactive so that users can ask questions, give feedback, and receive (optional) news updates about the website and related further developments. Altafsir.com will also have online discussion forums and users will be able to customize the viewing programme according to their own needs.