Pathology of the Exegetic Traditions on the Qur an

The discipline of tafsir (interpretation of the Qur’an) and the method of interpreting the exegetic traditions came into being along with the Qur’an; its history dates back to the very revelation of the Qur’an itself. Like other traditions, the exegetic traditions were exposed to injuries in the course of their history. Some traditions particularly exegetic collections have disappeared due to the ravages of time, some of those extant traditional exegeses suffer from omission and the weakness of their narrators, and still some others suffer from the weakness of the contents. Having introduced the most important injuries, the author goes to assess the extent of influence of each in the course of interpretation according to the discrepancies of the Qur’an experts and exegetists. The most significant injuries of exegetic traditions include the omission of the narrators, fabrication of hadith, penetration of Israliliyyat (tales from the Jews mostly false), the phenomena of exaggeration and extremists, narration of the general meaning, and the differences of recitation.