Tafsir Ibn Ajiba
Al-Bahr al-Madeed fi Tafsir al-Qur'an al-Majeed or shortly named al-Baḥr al-Madīd, better known as Tafsir Ibn 'Ajiba, is a Sunni Sufi tafsir work, authored by the Maliki-Ash'ari scholar Ahmad ibn 'Ajiba, who was following the Shadhili-Darqawi order.
It is the only traditional Qur'anic commentary which gives both exoteric exegesis and mystical, spiritual esoteric allusion for each verse of the Qur'an, combines traditional exegesis with spiritual contemplation, exploring the outer and inner meanings of the sacred text.
The reader will find commentary, both exoteric and esoteric, on most verses of the Qur'anic text, and will discover the depths at which Qur'anic discourse has been understood by the Sufis over the centuries and up to the author's era.
Ibn Ajiba's tafsir was written in about five years.
Background
Ibn 'Ajiba relied on several earlier sources for his interpretation, as he himself mentioned at the end of his tafsir, including the following:Anwar al-Tanzil wa Asrar al-Ta'wil by Nasir al-Din al-Baydawi.Irshad al-'Aql al-Salim ila Mazaya al-Kitab al-Karim by Ebussuud Efendi.Hashiya on Tafsir al-Jalalayn by Abu Zayd 'Abd al-Rahman al-Fasi.Al-Tashil li-'Ulum al-Tanzil by Ibn Juzayy.Al-Kashf wa al-Bayan by Abu Ishaq al-Tha'labi.Lata'if al-Isharat by Abu al-Qasim al-Qushayri.As for his Hadith sources, they are the six major Hadith collections of Sunni Islam and their valuable commentaries.
His linguistic sources are: Al-Alfiyya, al-Kafiyya al-Shafiyya by Ibn Malik, al-Tasheel by Ibn Hisham; and the books of Qur'an meanings, such as Ma'ani al-Qur'an by al-Farra' and al-Zajjaj; and also the dictionaries/lexicons books, such as al-Sihah by al-Jawhari, and Asas al-Balagha by al-Zamakhshari.
Most of the Sufi sources of his tafsir are from North Africa, al-Andalus, or Egypt. He quotes from scholars such as al-Junayd, al-Qushayri, al-Ghazali, al-Shadhili, al-Mursi, al-Sakandari, al-Darqawi, Muhammad al-Buzidi, al-Jili, al-Shushtari, al-Bistami, Zarruq and Ruzbihan al-Baqli. Ibn 'Ajiba's quotations from Ruzbihan have hitherto gone unnoticed, because Ibn 'Ajiba referred to him as "al-Wartajbi".