This work represents a significant land mark in the history of Islamic literature in English. There has until now been a dearth of translations of classical tafsir literature into English. With the first volume of this abridged translation of Imam al-Qurtubi's al-jami' li-ahkam al-Qur'an ('The Compendium of Legal Rulings of the Qur'an") an important step has been taken towards remedying this situation.
It gives English-speaking readers access to one of the great classical commentaries, containing a wealth of authoritative traditional exposition of the Sacred Text. Comprehensive interpretation of the Holy Qur'an requires consideration of every aspect - spiritual, legal, linguistic, social, and others.