Introduction

Ma'arif al-Quran — "The Knowledges of the Quran" — is the magnum opus of Mufti Muhammad Shafi' Usmani (1897–1976 CE / 1314–1396 AH), one of the foremost Islamic scholars of the Indian subcontinent in the twentieth century. Born in Deoband, India, Mufti Shafi' trained under the luminaries of Dar al-Ulum Deoband and rose to become the Grand Mufti of Pakistan following the partition of 1947, a post he held until his death. He was deeply rooted in the Hanafi school of jurisprudence and the Maturidi tradition of 'aqeedah, yet his scholarship drew extensively from the broader Sunni heritage. Ma'arif al-Quran, originally composed in Urdu, was later translated into Arabic and English, and it remains one of the most widely read and taught comprehensive tafsir works of the modern era.

The work was composed over many years and spans eight substantial volumes in its Urdu original. Mufti Shafi' drew on the full range of classical Quranic sciences — including asbab al-nuzul (occasions of revelation), nasikh wa mansukh (abrogation), i'jaz al-Quran (Quranic inimitability), and the linguistic subtleties of the Arabic text — while grounding the commentary firmly in the hadith literature and the opinions of the Companions, Successors, and the established legal schools. The tafsir pays particular attention to fiqh derivation, tracing how Quranic verses have been understood by the jurists of the four major madhahib, though the Hanafi position is given primacy consistent with the author's scholarly formation.

A distinctive feature of Ma'arif al-Quran is its pastoral orientation. Mufti Shafi' consistently draws out the spiritual and practical lessons of each passage for Muslim readers living in the modern world. He engages, where relevant, with contemporary questions — economic ethics, political governance, social relations — grounding his responses in classical scholarship rather than accommodating secular assumptions. This makes the work an unusually complete resource: simultaneously a traditional tafsir in the classical mode and a guide for Muslims navigating modern life in accordance with the Quran and Sunnah.

The English translation, prepared under the supervision of his son Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani and scholars at Dar al-Ulum Karachi, has made Ma'arif al-Quran accessible to a global English-speaking readership. It is widely assigned in Islamic seminaries, adult education programs, and university Islamic studies courses across South Asia, the United Kingdom, North America, and beyond. The translation preserves the scholarly depth of the original while rendering it in readable English, making it one of the most reliable full-length tafsir works available in the language.

Ma'arif al-Quran stands as one of the crowning achievements of twentieth-century Islamic scholarship. Its comprehensiveness, its fidelity to Ahl us-Sunnah wal-Jama'ah methodology, and its bridging of classical learning with contemporary relevance have secured its place as an indispensable reference for scholars, students, and serious readers of the Quran. It reflects Mufti Shafi's lifetime of devotion to Quranic learning and his conviction that every Muslim, regardless of their level of formal education, should have access to sound and thorough Quranic guidance.