Can't afford all ten volumes at one time? Now you can purchase the volumes individually.
Why This Option Exists
Because a ten-volume set is a significant purchase, and a great many people who would use it every week never buy it for that reason alone. Buying one volume at a time turns it from a decision into a habit.
It is also the practical answer for anyone who has damaged or lent out a single volume and does not want to replace the whole set.
Where to Start
Most people begin with the last volume, which covers the short surahs recited in daily prayers — the material with the most immediate return. Others start at volume one and work forward.
Either approach works. What does not work is waiting until you can afford all ten.
Tafsir Ibn Kathir is among the most comprehensive and complete explanations of the Noble Quran, translated into English for the first time in the history of Islam, and abridged by a group of scholars under the supervision of Shaykh Safiur-Rahman Al-Mubarakpuri.
Ibn Kathir's Method
He explains the Quran by the Quran — a verse clarified by another verse elsewhere. Where that does not settle the meaning, he turns to the authentic Sunnah; where that does not, to the words of the Companions and the Tabi'un.
Only then does interpretive judgment enter, and when it does he distinguishes sound narrations from weak ones and weighs between the opinions of the earlier exegetes rather than reporting them all as equivalent. That discipline is why the work has remained authoritative for seven centuries.
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