Al-Mizan An Exegesis of the Qur'an, vol 2

Foreword

al-'Allamah as-Sayyid Muhammad Husayn at-Tabataba'i (1321/1904 - 1402/1981) - may Allah have mercy upon him - was a famous scholar, thinker and the most celebrated con-temporary Islamic philosopher. We have introduced him briefly in the first volume of the English translation of al-Mizan.

al-'Allamah at-Tabataba'i is well-known for a number of his works of which the most important is his great exegesis al Mizan fi Tafsiri ‘l-Qur’an which is rightly counted as the funda­mental pillar of scholarly work which the 'Allamah has achieved in the Islamic world.

We felt the necessity of publishing an exegesis of the Holy Qur'an in English. After a thorough consultation, we came to choose al-Mizan because we found that it contained in itself, to a considerable extent, the points which should necessarily be expounded in a perfect exegesis of the Holy Qur'an and the points which appeal to the mind of the contemporary Muslim reader.

Therefore, we proposed to al-tistadh al-'Allamah as-Sayyid Sa’id Akhtar ar-Radawi to undertake this task because we were familiar with his intellectual ability to understand the Arabic text of al-Mizan and his literary capability in expression and translation. So we relied on him for this work and consider him responsible for the English translation as al-'Allamah at-Taba­taba'i was responsible for the Arabic text of al-Mizan and its discussions.

We have now undertaken the publication of the second volume of the English translation of al-Mizan. This volume corre­sponds with the second half of the first volume of the Arabic text. With the help of Allah, the Exalted, we hope to provide the com­plete translation and publication of this voluminous work.

In the first volume, the reader will find two more appendixes included apart from the two which are to appear in all volumes of the English translation of al-Mizan: One for the authors and the other for the books cited throughout this work.

We implore upon Allah to effect our work purely for His pleasure, and to help us to complete this work which we have started. May Allah guide us in this step which we have taken and in the future steps, for He is the best Master and the best Helper.

World Organization For Islamic Services (Board of Writing, Translation and Publication) 20/6/1404 24/3/1984 Tehran - IRAN.