Abd al-Rahman al-Suhayli as a Quran Commentator and His Work of the al-Rawḍ al-Unuf in Terms of Exegesis Quran

This study deals with Abu al-Qasim Abd al-Rahman b. Abd Allah al-Suhayli’s life (581/1185), who lived in Hijri 6th century in Andalusia, and analysis of al-Suheyli’s siyar commentaries entitled al-Rawḍ al-unuf in terms of tafsir. Al-Suheyli is a versatile and eminent scholar in tafsir, recitation, hadith, fiqh, usul, kalam, siyar, nahiv, language, and ansab. He had concentrated on the fields of nahiv, tafsir, and fiqh, while writing various works in many fields of Islamic studies. He wrote a book on “Mubhematul Quran”, which is a sub-discipline of Quranic studies, and some tafsir booklets. However al-Suheyli is famous with his al-Rawḍ al-unuf a commentary book on Ibn Hišām’s el-sīra al-Nabawiyya. Al-Suheyli benefited from all of the works written in the field of siyar and looked to many sources in tafsir while commenting on his work. Tafsir books of some commenters such as Yahya Ibn Sallam, Abd ar-Razzaq as-Sanani, Abd ibn Humayd ibn Nasr al-Kashshi, Ibn Qutaybah, al-Tabari, al-Mawardi, Baki ibn Mahled, Abu Bakr al-Naqqash, and Abu al-Abbas al-Mahdawi are sources of al-Rawḍ al-unuf. In addition to revealing original ideas about tafsir of Quran in his siyar commentary, al-Suheyli also made important explanations about Gharib al-Quran. Its richness of tafsir sources and largeness of tafsir content show place and importance of al-Rawḍ al-unuf in tafsir. It has drawn attention to the scholars of tafsir in all the Islamic geography from east to west, and many commentators have been quoted from this work. In this study, sources and content of al-Rawḍ al-unuf and its effects on next tafsirs will be determined and described; in this way, al-Suheyli will be portraid as a commentator and his contributions to the study of tafsir will be revealed.

Keywords

Abu al-Qasim al-Suhayli, al-Rawḍ al-unuf, siyar commentary, tafsir