However, I used to experience in reading it the difficulty that I experienced.

In reading, I was constantly brought to a halt by the frequency of divisions in his phrasing and the long separation between the clauses of his sentences, so that the meaning would not become clear to me until I re-read a paragraph two or three times. The reason for this was that we have become accustomed to a style of phrasing different from that which Abū Jaʿfar adopted; yet it also became clear to me that a little punctuation in the book was apt to make his phrasing clearer. When I did that in various scattered parts of my copy and then returned to reading it, I found that the hardship I used to experience had departed from it. When I consulted the books of Tafsir, I found that some authors quoted from him and attributed to him that which I did not find in his book, so it became clear to me that the reason for this was these sentences whose reading was difficult for me. A reader reads them and might err regarding Abū Jaʿfar's intent, or might hit upon it. I wished on that day that this glorious book might be published in a correct, critically edited, and punctuated edition, so that its reading would be easy for the seeker of knowledge, and so that it would spare him much of the slip in understanding Abū Jaʿfar's intent.

However, over time it became clear to me that what had been printed of Abū Jaʿfar's Tafsir contained much error, scribal corruption, and alteration. When I consulted the ancient works of Tafsir that quote from him, I found that they passed over some of these corrupted or altered phrases, so I realized that scribal corruption was ancient in the manuscript copies. And no wonder, for it is a massive book whose copyist could hardly keep every word correct. Those who printed it had a valid excuse, which was the sickness of its manuscripts that survived loss, the vastness of the book, and its need to consult hundreds of books, alongside patience with hardship and insight into the places of