Knowing the Sword Verses of the Koran

Everybody seems to know two things about the Koran—it is hard to read and it contains violence. But some people say that the violent material is misunderstood and is not really violence. How would you like to learn about the Koran from the same source that the imams and Islamic scholars use?

Explanations of the Koran are called tafsir, and the ultimate commentary on the Koran is by Ibn Kathir. Muslims regard Tafsir Ibn Kathir as being the most authentic and authoritative commentary on the Koran, and it has been one of the most widely used for the last 800 years. He weaves together the Hadith, Sira and other reports to clarify the meaning of each Koranic verse. Many scholars also consider him to be the primary source for understanding the Koran.

The violent verses of the Koran are frequently called the Sword verses. The 149 Sword verses of the Koran are put into their historical context using Tafsir Ibn Kathir. This material is given here in two forms, both attributed to the work of David Bukay:

· The Summary provides the reader with a brief abstract of the commentary for each verse, which also contains a quotation from the Koranic text itself. This work will help to shed light on the subject of the sword in the Koran.

· The full text with all of Ibn Kathir’s comments.