01 · The commentary.
Tafseer e Namoona— “The Exemplary Commentary” — is a fifteen-volume work begun in Qom in 1974 under the direction of Ayatollah Nāṣir Makārim Shīrāzī, and completed over more than a decade with a circle of his students and colleagues.
It was conceived in answer to a felt absence: scholarly tafsīr that could speak to a present-day reader without retreating behind specialist apparatus. The commentary moves verse by verse, but never reduces to a gloss. Where the Arabic admits multiple readings, those readings are weighed. Where the verse opens onto a question of ethics, of history, of contemporary life, the question is met, not deflected.
The original is in Persian. Translations into Urdu, Arabic, English, Turkish, and Spanish have followed in the decades since. This site sets the Urdu and English alongside the Arabic of the Quran itself — three columns of the same conversation.
The book is not described by what it contains but by what it does: it transports.
— From the commentary on Surah Ibrāhīm02 · The commentator.
Ayatollah Nāṣir Makārim Shīrāzī (b. 1924, Shīrāz) is among the most widely read Shīʿī scholars of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. He studied in Najaf under Ayatollahs al-Khūʾī, al-Ḥakīm, and al-Khomeinī, returning to Iran in the 1950s to teach and to write.
His method is recognisable across some two hundred books: a refusal of difficulty for its own sake, an insistence that the text speak to its reader, and a steady attentiveness to what the verse asks of the listener now, not only what it once asked. Tafseer e Namoona is the most representative of these works — and the one for which he is most often cited.
Makārim Shīrāzī · editor-in-chief
Oversaw the project from 1974, drafted the surahs on theological foundation himself, and edited the final text across all volumes.
Aḥmad ʿAlī Bābāʾī · co-author
Contributed extensively to the volumes on Yūnus through Ibrāhīm, where the ethical-legal threads predominate.
Dāʾūdī & circle · nine others
Drafted individual volumes under Makārim's supervision; cross-checked across the work for consistency of voice.
03 · This edition.
This is a digital re-presentation, not a translation in itself. The Urdu translation used here is that of Safdar Najfi. English translations are available in Yusuf Ali and Shakir, selectable per surah. Where the published Urdu glosses depart from the English, both are shown.
The Arabic text is the Tanzil Uthmani 1.0.4 release; verse numbering follows the Kūfī tradition. Vocalisation marks (ḥarakāt) appear in full by default; readers may dim them in the reader settings.
04 · Editorial principles.
No additions to the text. Where the commentary cites a verse, the citation is preserved exactly. Where it explains, the explanation appears as commentary, not as the verse.
Transliterations are diacriticised. Surah names follow the IJMES convention (Ibrāhīm, not Ibrahim), with vernacular fallbacks visible on hover.
Nothing is sent to a server. Bookmarks, highlights, and notes live in your browser’s local storage. No account, no login, no quota. If you clear your browser data, your library is gone — but at no point did anyone else have it.
05 · The volumes.
The commentary is divided across fifteen Persian volumes. This site is paginated by surah; the mapping is preserved for cross-reference.
| Vol. | Surahs | Title | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 – 2 | Al-Fātiḥah · Al-Baqarah | 1974 |
| 2 | 3 – 4 | Āl ʿImrān · An-Nisāʾ | 1975 |
| 3 | 5 – 7 | Al-Māʾidah · Al-Anʿām · Al-Aʿrāf | 1976 |
| 4 | 8 – 10 | Al-Anfāl · At-Tawbah · Yūnus | 1977 |
| 5 | 11 – 14 | Hūd · Yūsuf · Ar-Raʿd · Ibrāhīm | 1978 |
| 6 | 15 – 18 | Al-Ḥijr · An-Naḥl · Al-Isrāʾ · Al-Kahf | 1979 |
| … | … | … and so on through volume 15 | … |
| 15 | 105 – 114 | Al-Fīl through An-Nās | 1987 |
06 · Acknowledgements.
Arabic text from the Tanzil Project. Translations licensed under their respective terms. Calligraphy set in Amiri Quran (Khaled Hosny), with body Persian and Urdu in Noto Nastaliq Urdu. English in Cormorant Garamond (Christian Thalmann) and Inter (Rasmus Andersson). The site itself owes its presence to readers who corrected its first drafts.
07 · How to read along.
The book is structured for slowness. Read one verse a day; read one surah a month; read the whole through in a year — there is a rhythm that suits each life. The commentary will wait. So will the page.
On any verse, the icons in the top right let you bookmark or highlight. The commentary opens with a tap on “Tafseer”. Use the language toggle to switch between Urdu and English. Use ⌘ K to open search from anywhere.