On the Etiquette of Attending Circles of Learning

By Imam Ibn Hazm al-Zahiri

If you attend a study-session, behave only like someone who wishes to increase his knowledge and to win greater recompense from God. Do not behave like someone who is content with what he has, who is looking for some fault to criticise or a curious detail to hawk around. This would be the behaviour of vile men who never succeed in their studies.

If you come to it with good intentions, you will always obtain the best results. Otherwise, to stay at home would be less tiring for your body, more worthy of your moral conduct and more salutary for your religious life.

If you do attend under the conditions that we have indicated, take care to adopt one of these three attitudes and there cannot be a fourth: [First,] you may keep quiet in the silence of ignorance. Thus you will obtain the reward of your intention in attending the study-session, praise for your reserve, dignity in your behaviour and the friendship of those you mix with.

An Introduction to the Science of Tafsir

By Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani

The literal meaning of tafsir in the Arabic language is to open or to explain, interpret or comment. Technically, the science of tafsir is a branch of knowledge in which the meanings of the Quran are explained and its injunctions and wisdoms are described openly and clearly (al-Burhan). Addressing the Holy Prophet, the Glorious Quran says:

We revealed the Quran to you so that you explain to the people what has been sent down to them. (16:44)

The Holy Quran also says:

Surely, Allah did a great favor to Muslims when He sent a Messenger to them from among them who would recite His verses before them and purify them and teach them the Book and the Wisdom. (3:164)

Keeping this in view, it should be noted that the Holy Prophet not only taught the words of the Quran to the people but he also explained them in detail. This is why, on some occasions, the revered Companions had to devote years at a time to learning a single surah.

Until such time that the Holy Prophet graced the mortal world with his presence, seeking the explanation of a Quranic verse did not pose much of a problem. When the Companions faced any difficulty in understanding a verse, they would simply turn to the Prophet (upon him blessings and peace). Later, however, it became necessary that the tafsir of the Quran be preserved as a permanent branch of knowledge so that, along with the words of the Noble Quran, its correct meaning remain protected and conserved for the Muslim Ummah as well, and so heretics and deviants could find no room for distortion of its meanings. So, with the grace and tawfiq of Allah Almighty, the Ummah accomplished this wonderful mission with such efficiency that today we can say without any doubt or fear of rebuttal that not only have the words of this Last Book of Allah been protected but also its correct explanation transmitted to us through the Holy Prophet and his Companions.