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What is a brief overview of the era of stagnation in Tafsir (exegesis) and when did it begin? What are the controls for adopting language in Tafsir, and is it a proof? And what is meant by the linguistic origin?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

The era of stagnation refers to a period of dormancy in tafsir (Qur'anic exegesis) that immediately preceded the modern era. Al-Dhahabi believes that the early mufassirun (exegetes) fully dedicated themselves to researching and verifying tafsir, leading to a period of stagnation until the modern era of scientific renaissance. However, this view has been rejected by some researchers, including Dr. Othman Al-Qumaihi, who holds that tafsir during that phase was robust, and that describing it as stagnant emboldened the rationalist current. It appears that the cause of this misconception is the influence of other historical science books. Dr. Musa'id Al-Tayyar emphasizes that the science of tafsir still possesses more innovation and renewal than any other science, and the occurrence of an era of jurisprudential stagnation does not mean its counterpart occurred in tafsir. As for linguistic tafsir, it is authoritative, but with regulations, the most important of which is that it should not be independent of other sources such as the Sunnah, the sayings of the Companions, and the reasons for revelation.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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