Ulum ul Quran
The knowledge of 'Ulum al-Qu'ran, or 'The Sciences of the Qur'an', deals with the knowledge of those sciences that have a direct bearing on the recitation, history, understanding and implementation of the Qur'an. It is, therefore, a vast field of Islamic scholarship, and one that if of primary importance. Thus, for example, with regards to recitation, 'Ulum al-Qu'ran deals with the science of pronunciation (tajwid), the different methodologies of reciting the Qur'an (the qira'at). With regards to the history of the Qur'an, 'Ulum al-Qu'ran deals with the stages of revelation of the Qur'an, the compilation of the Qur'an, the art and history of writing the Qur'anic script (rasm al-masahif), and the preservation of the Qur'an. With regards to its understanding and implementation, 'Ulum al-Qu'ran covers the causes of revelation (asbab an-nuzul), the knowledge of maki and madani revelations, the understanding of its abrogated rulings and verses (nasikh wal-mansukh), the knowledge of the various classifications of its verses (muhkam and mutashabih, 'am and khas, mutlaq and muqqayad, etc.), the knowledge of its interpretation (tafsir).
Tafseer ul Quran
Living by the Qur’an requires, we, Muslims, understand it first. In order to understand it, however, we have to use our minds. And in order to use our minds we have to spend time and effort, we have to struggle and persevere, just like we do for other things in life. There are no shortcuts in this process. This is Allah’s law of requital. Without proper input one cannot get proper output. Allah says the Qur’an is more valuable than any treasure we can accumulate. But do we really consider the Qur’an as the most valuable thing in our lives? How much of our day- and night-time hours do we devote to it? To what extent is our understanding of it compromised by our lack of willingness to study it? Allah enjoins on every Muslim in every age to use his/her reason, intellect, and knowledge to understand and explore the meanings of His revelations [25:73]. Allah tells us to do tadabbur in the Qur’an. “Afalaa yatadabbaroon al-Qur’an?” (4:82) Tadabburmeans highly focused, goal-oriented, intense thinking to discover the application of the Qur’an to our way of life.