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Maʿarif al-Quran مَعَارِف الْقُرْآن

In review — pending scholar verification

A modern Urdu commentary on the Quran by Muḥammad Shafīʿ Deobandī (d. 1976) — eight volumes covering the Quran in detail, balancing classical isnad-based material with Hanafi-jurisprudential and modern explanation.

Overview

Maʿārif al-Qurʾān (Arabic: مَعَارِف الْقُرْآن; "The Sciences of the Quran") is a major modern commentary on the Quran in Urdu, written by Muftī Muḥammad Shafīʿ Deobandī (1897–1976 CE), the founder of Dar al-ʿUlum Karachi and a senior scholar of the Deobandi Hanafi tradition.

The work runs to eight volumes and was written between 1965 and 1973, drawing extensively on classical sources — especially the Tafsīr al-Maẓharī of Qāḍī Thanāʾullāh Pānipatī, Ibn Kathīr, at-Ṭabarī, and the Indo-Pakistani classical tradition. Mufti Shafīʿ's methodology emphasises:

  1. Linguistic clarity in Urdu translation.
  2. Classical isnad-based explanations from the Companions and Successors.
  3. Hanafi juristic discussions where verses bear on legal matters.
  4. Modern application — ethical, social, and contemporary.
  5. Cross-referencing within the Quran.

Significance

Maʿārif al-Qurʾān is one of the standard commentaries in the Deobandi-Hanafi educational tradition. The English translation by his son Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani is widely available; it preserves the depth of classical material while remaining accessible. Outside Hanafi circles, it is consulted alongside Tafhim al-Quran as a representative modern Indo-Pakistani Urdu commentary.

See also

References

  1. Muḥammad Shafīʿ, Maʿārif al-Qurʾān, 8 vols. (Idārat al-Maʿārif, Karachi).
  2. Trans. Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani et al., Maariful Quran, 8 vols. (Maktaba-e-Darul-ʿUloom Karachi).