probable date of the Medinian revelations, but no such help being obtainable in the case of the Meccan revelation, I have thought it safer to divide the Meccan revelation into three periods, and any chapter can with a certain degree of probability be referred to one or other of these periods. I take the early Meccan period to about the first flight to Abysinnia, the middle Meccan period to four years previous to the Hejira, while the last four years of that period I designate as the last Meccan period.
The references to the authorities quoted in the notes are explained in the list of abbreviations given on p. cxii. Among the commentators, I have made the greatest use of the voluminous commentaries of Imam Fakhr-ud-Din Razi (known as Tafsír-i-Kabír, or the Great Commentary), Imam Asirud Din Abu Hayyan (known as the Baḥr-ul-Muḥíṭ), and Ibn-i-Jarir Tabri, and the shorter but by no means less valuable commentaries of Zamakhshari (known as Kashsháf), Baiḍáwi and Jámi’-ul-Bayán. Among the lexicons, the Táj-ul-’Arús and the Lisán-ul-’Arab are voluminous standard works and have been freely consulted, but the smaller work of Imam Raghib Isphhani, known as the Mufradát fi gharíb-il-Qur-án, has afforded immense help, and it undoubtedly occupies the first place among the standard works in Arabic lexicology so far as the Qur-án is concerned. The valuable dictionary of Hadees, the Niháyah of Ibn-i-Asir, has also proved very serviceable in explaining many a moot point. It will, however, be noted that I have more often referred to Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon, a work the value of which for the English student of Arabic can hardly be overestimated; this has been done purposely, so that the reader of this volume may have the facility to refer to an easily accessible work. Besides commentaries and lexicons, historical and other works have also been consulted. Among the collections of reports, Bukharee's Kitáb-ut-Tafsír, or chapter on the commentary of the Holy Qur-án, has been before me throughout. And lastly, the greatest religious leader of the present time, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian, has inspired me with all that is best in this work. I have drunk deep at the fountain of knowledge which this great reformer—Mujaddid and Mehdi in Islam, of the present century—and founder of the Ahmadiyya movement, has made to flow. There is one more person whose name I must mention in this connection, the late Maulvi Hakim Nurud Din, who in his last long illness patiently went through much the greater part of the explanatory notes and made many valuable suggestions. To him, indeed, the Muslim world owes a great debt of gratitude as the leader of the new turn given to the exposition of the Holy Qur-án. He has done his work and passed away silently, but it is a fact that he spent the whole of his life in studying the Holy Qur-án, and must be ranked with the greatest expositors of the Holy Book. It is a pity that his valuable Arabic commentary has not yet been given to the world, but when that manuscript sees the light, it will reveal that he was one of the master minds.
The principle of the greatest importance to which I have adhered in interpreting the Holy Qur-án is that no word of the Holy Book should be interpreted in such a manner as to contradict the plainer teachings of the Holy Qur-án, a principle to which the Holy Word has itself called the attention of its reader in 3:6; see 387. This rule forms the basis of my interpretation of the Qur-án, and this is a very sound basis, if we remember that the Holy Qur-án contains metaphors, parables, and allegories side by side with plain teachings. Practice (sunnat) and sayings of the Holy Prophet when contained in reliable reports are the best commentary of the Holy Word, and I have therefore attached the greatest
