Available from:
Crescent International
P O Box 747, Gormley, ON. LoH 1G0
Tel: 905 887 1119

Muslims in Canada made history when the first-ever Tafsir written directly in English was launched at an impressive ceremony on Saturday May 24 at the Islamic Society of York Region.

Attended by nearly 500 people among them Imams, Presidents of Islamic Centres, academics and others, the launch ceremony commenced after Asr Salat. The formal program started with recitation from the noble Qur'an by Ahsan Syed and Haris Shakeel.

Since the Tafsir is published by the Institute of Contemporary Islamic Thought (ICIT), Zafar Bangash, Director of ICIT welcomed everyone and gave a brief background of how the idea of the Tafsir was born more than 12 years ago after a highly successful International Conference in Pretoria, South Africa. He pointed out that this was the first volume of what would be a 20-volume project.

Br Afeef Khan, who has ably edited the first volume of the Tafsir then explained why it was necessary to have a Tafsir in English when several translations already exist. He was followed by Br Javed Akbar, Director for Outreach Program at the Pickering Islamic Centre who gave his assessment of Imam al-Asi's Tafsir. Iqbal Siddiqui, Editor of Crescent International, was at hand to share his thoughts about the importance of such a Tafsir and why it needed to be circulated widely so that Muslims can link with the noble Book in a more meaningful way.

The final speaker was Imam Muhammad al-Asi himself who explained why Muslims needed to engage the noble Book in a manner that would change their lives in a radical way. He also emphasised that the Qur'an is our eternal source of guidance and its message must be understood and applied anew by every generation.

The Tafsir was then formally launched with participants lining up to get their copies autographed by Imam Muhammad al-Asi. Many obtained multiple copies and quite a few also ordered the entire 20-volume set even though only one volume has so far been published.