and that his adducing them served the same purpose as adducing ancient poetry to understand the meaning of a word or to indicate the context of a sentence. I have added comments in this volume (1: 454, 458, and other places) explaining al-Ṭabarī's approach in adducing these reports, and I omitted comments in very many places, relying on this commentary. I decided to leave that until I write a book on "al-Ṭabarī the Exegete" after finishing the printing of this Tafsir, because I saw that there are many things there that ought to be clarified regarding al-Ṭabarī's methodology in his Tafsir. I found that every day something new comes to me regarding knowledge of his methodology, whenever my knowledge of his book and my familiarity with his way increases. So I ask Allah to help me devote a dedicated book to discussing his style of exegesis, along with clarifying the argument place by place, according to what has become clear to me of his style therein. May Allah have mercy on Abū Jaʿfar, for as he said, he had contemplated this Tafsir while he was a boy, and he sought guidance from Allah (istikhāra) regarding his work and asked Him for aid in what he intended for three years before undertaking it, so Allah, Glorified be He, aided him. Then when he wanted to dictate his Tafsir, he said to his companions: "Are you eager for the exegesis of the Qurʾān?" They asked: "How large will it be?" He replied: "Thirty thousand leaves." They said: "This is something in which lifetimes would be consumed before its completion!" So he abridged it for them to three thousand leaves. This abridgment was the reason for his leaving out the explanation of what we strive to clarify at every verse. This abridgment is very evident to anyone who follows this Tafsir from its beginning to its end.

Furthermore, I had considered writing a biography of al-Ṭabarī to serve as an introduction to the Tafsir. However, I found that writing about his Tafsir in this biography would not be feasible for me