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.
|
Home
|