For scholarly review · not public

The Qur’an, read through thirty-seven commentaries

One agreed reading for every one of the 6,236 ayat, built by asking thirty-seven editions of twenty-nine classical and modern commentaries what they share, and writing only that. This package is being sent to you before anything is published, because the work has a known weakness and one pair of eyes is not enough.

6,236ayat, each with a reading

114surahs, all complete

37editions = 29 distinct works

41surahs also in Urdu

41surahs also in Arabic

What we already know is wrong

The readings were written from a sample of each commentary, not the whole of it. On plain ayat that worked. Where a commentary attaches a limit, some readings dropped it.

The clearest case is 4:34. Five editions - including al-Ṭūsī, who reports no disagreement on the point - say the striking is ghayr mubarriḥ: non-injurious, never the face, no marks, no broken bones. The reading said only “and strike them”. That is a serious omission on the most contested ayah in the Qur’an, and it is ours.

A mechanical gate now compares each reading against every claim that three or more editions assert. On ten test ayat it found 53 such omissions. Repair is under way. Please read knowing this - and if you see the same fault elsewhere, that is exactly what we need from you.

The six questions we are asking you

Is the “similarities only” rule the right one?
Every reading states what the commentaries share. Where they conflict, the reading is silent - it never adjudicates, and never writes “some say”. This keeps one ummah on one page. It also means a reader is not told that a dispute exists. Is that trade acceptable, and are there ayat where silence itself misleads?
Is the selection of 37 works balanced?
They were not selected - they were what two public APIs carried. No scholarly criterion was ever written down, because none was applied, so 37 is a fact about what was machine-readable in 2026 rather than a judgement about which commentaries matter. Sunni and Shi’i works sit in one list, ordered by the author’s death date alone, with no sectarian label anywhere on the page. Are any major works missing? Is any tradition over- or under-weighted?
Do the readings carry the limits the commentaries attach?
This is the known weakness and we are actively repairing it. A gate now compares every reading against the claims that three or more editions assert, and it has already found 53 dropped elements in ten test ayat - for example, at 4:34 five editions qualify the striking as ghayr mubarriḥ, non-injurious, and the reading did not say so. Which other ayat should we check first?
Is Tanwir al-Miqbas rightly included?
Its attribution to Ibn ‘Abbas is disputed. It is included and labelled, not excluded. Is that the right call for a work of this kind?
Does counting a translation as a separate work double-count?
Ibn Kathir appears in Arabic, English and Urdu. They are listed as three editions because they are three texts that can differ. Does that inflate the sense of how many independent voices are present?
Where does a sparse work create a false impression?
Some works comment on only part of the Qur’an. On an ayah where a work is silent, the page says so. Is that disclosure sufficient?

How to send comments back

Cite the ayah by its number - 4:34 - and every page has a permanent anchor per ayah, so a link like surah/004.html#a34 points exactly where you mean.

There is a spreadsheet, COMMENTS-TEMPLATE.csv, with the columns we can act on directly: ayah, what is wrong, what it should say, and which work supports the correction. Prose in any form is equally welcome - the template is for convenience, not a requirement.

How it was built, in five lines

Every Arabic text and every quotation is pulled from a sealed corpus at build time. No scripture and no quotation was typed by hand, so no transcription error is possible.
The build refuses to run if any ayah lacks a reading, or if any quotation is not found verbatim in its source.
Readings state only what the commentaries share. Conflicts are left aside, never adjudicated.
No sectarian label appears anywhere. Works are ordered by the author’s death date alone.
Where a work is silent on an ayah, the page says so rather than hiding the gap.

Works not yet included — and the commitment to add them

This project holds 29 distinct works. altafsir.com serves 78, and 60 of them are not here. Four traditions have no representative at all — zero Sufi, zero Zaydi, zero Ibadi, zero Ismaili — and the first three are category headings on altafsir’s own menu, one click away for the whole build.

These are being worked toward, not merely admitted. Every missing work is named, with the route by which it can actually be obtained — downloadable from QUL, or requiring a written request to the Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute, or still needing a source found. Nothing will be scraped: 78 works across 6,236 ayat is ~486,000 requests against a charity’s server, and a work meant as a gift does not begin by taking without asking.

→ The full list of works still to come, with the route for each

Start here

Why this exists - what this is for, whether it has been done before (it has, in part - said plainly), and what an ordinary reader, an alim, a researcher and a non-Muslim each get from it. Every line carries its Urdu.
The field - every one of the 78 works altafsir.com actually serves, matched against ours. Its menu has Zaydi, Ibadi and Sufi categories: three of the four traditions we hold at zero, one click away for the whole build. Urdu throughout.
The named absences - the works of standing that are NOT here, and what each omission costs. Four traditions have no representative at all. Urdu throughout.
The thirty-seven editions - every commentator, his title in Arabic, his dates in AH and CE, his era, school and method. Urdu throughout.

Also in this package

The Commentary Register - all 37 works with author, dates, school, method, coverage and rights.
Method and known limits - the longer version, including what this project does not claim.
The full evidence archive is a separate download: every ayah with the actual quotations from all 37 works beneath it. It is large (~300 MB compressed) and is supplied only on request.

All 114 surahs

#	Surah		Ayat	Also in
1	Al-Fatihah	الفاتحة	7	Urdu · Arabic
2	Al-Baqarah	البقرة	286	—
3	Ali 'Imran	آل عمران	200	—
4	An-Nisa	النساء	176	—
5	Al-Ma'idah	المائدة	120	—
6	Al-An'am	الأنعام	165	—
7	Al-A'raf	الأعراف	206	—
8	Al-Anfal	الأنفال	75	—
9	At-Tawbah	التوبة	129	—
10	Yunus	يونس	109	—
11	Hud	هود	123	—
12	Yusuf	يوسف	111	—
13	Ar-Ra'd	الرعد	43	—
14	Ibrahim	ابراهيم	52	—
15	Al-Hijr	الحجر	99	—
16	An-Nahl	النحل	128	—
17	Al-Isra	الإسراء	111	—
18	Al-Kahf	الكهف	110	—
19	Maryam	مريم	98	—
20	Taha	طه	135	—
21	Al-Anbya	الأنبياء	112	—
22	Al-Hajj	الحج	78	—
23	Al-Mu'minun	المؤمنون	118	—
24	An-Nur	النور	64	—
25	Al-Furqan	الفرقان	77	—
26	Ash-Shu'ara	الشعراء	227	—
27	An-Naml	النمل	93	—
28	Al-Qasas	القصص	88	—
29	Al-'Ankabut	العنكبوت	69	—
30	Ar-Rum	الروم	60	—
31	Luqman	لقمان	34	—
32	As-Sajdah	السجدة	30	—
33	Al-Ahzab	الأحزاب	73	—
34	Saba	سبإ	54	—
35	Fatir	فاطر	45	—
36	Ya-Sin	يس	83	Urdu · Arabic
37	As-Saffat	الصافات	182	—
38	Sad	ص	88	—
39	Az-Zumar	الزمر	75	—
40	Ghafir	غافر	85	—
41	Fussilat	فصلت	54	—
42	Ash-Shuraa	الشورى	53	—
43	Az-Zukhruf	الزخرف	89	—
44	Ad-Dukhan	الدخان	59	—
45	Al-Jathiyah	الجاثية	37	—
46	Al-Ahqaf	الأحقاف	35	—
47	Muhammad	محمد	38	—
48	Al-Fath	الفتح	29	—
49	Al-Hujurat	الحجرات	18	—
50	Qaf	ق	45	—
51	Adh-Dhariyat	الذاريات	60	—
52	At-Tur	الطور	49	—
53	An-Najm	النجم	62	—
54	Al-Qamar	القمر	55	—
55	Ar-Rahman	الرحمن	78	Urdu · Arabic
56	Al-Waqi'ah	الواقعة	96	—
57	Al-Hadid	الحديد	29	—
58	Al-Mujadila	المجادلة	22	—
59	Al-Hashr	الحشر	24	—
60	Al-Mumtahanah	الممتحنة	13	—
61	As-Saf	الصف	14	—
62	Al-Jumu'ah	الجمعة	11	—
63	Al-Munafiqun	المنافقون	11	—
64	At-Taghabun	التغابن	18	—
65	At-Talaq	الطلاق	12	—
66	At-Tahrim	التحريم	12	—
67	Al-Mulk	الملك	30	Urdu · Arabic
68	Al-Qalam	القلم	52	—
69	Al-Haqqah	الحاقة	52	—
70	Al-Ma'arij	المعارج	44	—
71	Nuh	نوح	28	—
72	Al-Jinn	الجن	28	—
73	Al-Muzzammil	المزمل	20	—
74	Al-Muddaththir	المدثر	56	—
75	Al-Qiyamah	القيامة	40	—
76	Al-Insan	الانسان	31	—
77	Al-Mursalat	المرسلات	50	—
78	An-Naba	النبإ	40	Urdu · Arabic
79	An-Nazi'at	النازعات	46	Urdu · Arabic
80	'Abasa	عبس	42	Urdu · Arabic
81	At-Takwir	التكوير	29	Urdu · Arabic
82	Al-Infitar	الإنفطار	19	Urdu · Arabic
83	Al-Mutaffifin	المطففين	36	Urdu · Arabic
84	Al-Inshiqaq	الإنشقاق	25	Urdu · Arabic
85	Al-Buruj	البروج	22	Urdu · Arabic
86	At-Tariq	الطارق	17	Urdu · Arabic
87	Al-A'la	الأعلى	19	Urdu · Arabic
88	Al-Ghashiyah	الغاشية	26	Urdu · Arabic
89	Al-Fajr	الفجر	30	Urdu · Arabic
90	Al-Balad	البلد	20	Urdu · Arabic
91	Ash-Shams	الشمس	15	Urdu · Arabic
92	Al-Layl	الليل	21	Urdu · Arabic
93	Ad-Duhaa	الضحى	11	Urdu · Arabic
94	Ash-Sharh	الشرح	8	Urdu · Arabic
95	At-Tin	التين	8	Urdu · Arabic
96	Al-'Alaq	العلق	19	Urdu · Arabic
97	Al-Qadr	القدر	5	Urdu · Arabic
98	Al-Bayyinah	البينة	8	Urdu · Arabic
99	Az-Zalzalah	الزلزلة	8	Urdu · Arabic
100	Al-'Adiyat	العاديات	11	Urdu · Arabic
101	Al-Qari'ah	القارعة	11	Urdu · Arabic
102	At-Takathur	التكاثر	8	Urdu · Arabic
103	Al-'Asr	العصر	3	Urdu · Arabic
104	Al-Humazah	الهمزة	9	Urdu · Arabic
105	Al-Fil	الفيل	5	Urdu · Arabic
106	Quraysh	قريش	4	Urdu · Arabic
107	Al-Ma'un	الماعون	7	Urdu · Arabic
108	Al-Kawthar	الكوثر	3	Urdu · Arabic
109	Al-Kafirun	الكافرون	6	Urdu · Arabic
110	An-Nasr	النصر	3	Urdu · Arabic
111	Al-Masad	المسد	5	Urdu · Arabic
112	Al-Ikhlas	الإخلاص	4	Urdu · Arabic
113	Al-Falaq	الفلق	5	Urdu · Arabic
114	An-Nas	الناس	6	Urdu · Arabic