Tafsir al-Quran al-Azim (Exegesis of the Magnificent Quran) by Ismail b. Umar b. Kathir (d. 774 AH / 1373 CE) is one of the most celebrated and widely used tafsir works in the Sunni tradition. Its primary objective is to elucidate the meaning of the Quran through the Quran itself, authentic hadith, and the transmitted statements of the Companions and Successors, firmly grounding interpretation in narrated evidence rather than speculative reasoning. Ibn Kathir follows the classical manhaj of tafsir bi-al-mathur, systematically citing related Quranic passages first, followed by relevant prophetic traditions with attention to their chains of transmission, then the opinions of the Sahabah and Tabiun. He was notably critical of weak and fabricated narrations and routinely flagged unreliable Israiliyyat. A student of Ibn Taymiyyah, Ibn Kathir's is firmly Athari, affirming the divine attributes as they appear in the texts without resorting to figurative interpretation (tawil). He was Shafii in his legal school. The work is extensive, running across multiple large volumes, and remains extraordinarily popular in global Muslim communities, especially in Salafi and mainstream Sunni circles, where it is frequently consulted in Islamic education and religious instruction. More...