About the book and its method
'Jami' al-Bayan 'an Ta'wil Ay al-Qur'an' by Imam Muhammad ibn Jarir at-Tabari (839–923 CE) is the first great encyclopedic tafsir of the Muslim community — the mother book later exegetes returned to. At-Tabari gathered nearly thirty thousand reports from the Companions, the Followers and those after them, with connected chains, weighing every disagreement by a scale: a Qur'anic witness, then a hadith, then the Arabic language, then the views of the Companions and Followers.
In his long introduction at-Tabari laid out the complete method of exegesis: interpret the Qur'an by the Qur'an, then by the Sunnah, then by what the early generations agreed upon, then by what language and usage necessarily prove — presenting opinions and rejecting the rejected with evidence. His book thus became a comprehensive prose encyclopedia combining exegesis, reports, Arab history and the theology of his time.
This gateway lets you browse the tafsir verse by verse for all 114 surahs, alongside the Qur'anic text in Uthmani script. Choose a surah, then tap an ayah to display at-Tabari's discussion of its interpretation.