Tasnim; a medium of knowing the holy Quran

Tasnim is an invaluable exegesis of the holy Quran prepared as the outcome of a series of exegetical lectures on the holy Qur’an by Ayatullah Jawadi Amuli in the Seminary of Qum. To date 16 volumes of this exegesis have been published and 64 more volumes are expected to appear in the future so as to cover the entire Qur’an. Thus far Tasnim has obtained several awards both in and out of Iran. In 2006، Tasnim was selected as the best research work in Islamic and Quranic studies by ISISCO. The word ‘Tasnim’، deriving from Quranic terminology (chapter Mutaffifin، verse 27)، is the name of a heavenly fountain that springs forth pure water for the use of those brought near to the Holy Presence of God. Ayatullah Jawadi has named his exegesis ‘Tasnim’ because the Quran is a fountain from which all other sciences flow and on which the authority of all other sciences is based. One of the most important structural peculiarities of this exegesis is that it is a methodic exegesis. Things such as personal inclinations، intellectual or popular preferences and the presuppositions of other sciences are not imposed on the holy Quran in this exegesis. The present article studies the following: 1) structure and content of Tasnim 2) a comparison between Tasnim and al-Mizan pointing out their differences and commonalities 3) the ethical-intellectual stature of the writer of Tasnim 4) Tasnim and its writer from the perspectives of others 5) the sources used by Tasnim. The present work is the outcome of methodological studies on Tasnim made by the writer. Some of the discussions touched on in this study are contributions by Ayatullah Jawadi himself while others are the result of due deliberation upon this luminous work.