Usul al Tafsir

In the field of Qur’anic studies, Usul al-Tafsir is a major subfield about which one can find abundant literature from the classical period. In modern times, both Muslims and non-Muslims have contributed a number of books on the subject in English. Some important contributions by Muslims in English include Ahmad Von Denfer’s [Ulum al-Qur’an (1983), Yasir Qadhi’s An Introduction to the Sciences of the Qur’an (1999), Hasanuddin Ahmad’s Introducing the Qur’an (2005), Abdullah Saeed’s Interpreting the Quran (2006) and Quran: An Introduction (2008). According to the author of the book under review, all these books remain both ‘limited in content and fewer in number’ (p. xiv). The scholarship of Orientalists in this branch of study is also neither satisfying nor flawless, for they give a feeling of ‘manipulation due to certain deductions in their approaches to the Qur’an.’