Gateway to the Qur’anic Sciences

Gateway to the Qur’anic Sciences 

Based on Al-Itqan Fi Ulum Al-Qur’an

Allah describes the Qurʾān as the ‘guidance to mankind, and the Criterion (of right and wrong)’ (2:185). Islamic scholars have therefore sought to explain the sciences associated with correctly understanding the revelation. This discipline has come to be known as ʿulūm al-Qurʾān, or ‘sciences of the Qurʾān’, and includes many subjects, such as the nature and order of revelation, explanations of the types of expressions used in the revelation and how the sacred text is to be correctly recited. Imam Jalāl ad-Dīn as-Suyūṭī wrote one of the leading comprehensive manuals on ʿulūm al-Qurʾān, entitled al-Itqān fī ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān. The text here translated is a summary by Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn Arqahudān of many major topics covered in the Itqān.

Imam Jalal ad-Din as-Suyuti (1425-1505) was a towering ninth-century Egyptian scholar and is considered the reviver of his era, foremost hadith master, jurist, Sufi, philologist, and historian, he authored works in virtually every Islamic science. He was a prolific writer and has over 600 titles to his name—many of which are encyclopaedic in nature and cover almost every science of his day. 

Born to a Turkish mother and non-Arab father and raised as an orphan in Cairo, he memorised the Qur’an at eight, then several complete works of Sacred Law.

He travelled in the pursuit of knowledge to Damascus, the Hijaz, Yemen, India, Morocco, the lands south of Morocco, as well as to centres of learning in Egypt such as Mahalla, Dumyat, and Fayyum. He was some time head teacher of hadith at the Shaykhuniyya school in Cairo at the recommendation of Imam Kamal al-Din ibn al-Humam