The Tafsir Lab on GABLVM lets you read Quranic commentary verse by verse, in plain accessible HTML, with a keyboard or screen reader friendly layout. We released it on April 18, 2026, and refined it a few days later. This post is the proper introduction.
What tafsir is
Tafsir is the body of scholarly commentary that explains the Quran. Where a translation tells you what a verse says, a tafsir tells you the context, the historical setting, the linguistic nuances, and how classical scholars have understood it. Reading tafsir alongside the Quran is one of the most direct ways to deepen your understanding of the text.
Three English tafsirs
The Tafsir Lab currently offers three English tafsirs. Switch between them at any time without leaving the page.
- Tafsir Ibn Kathir (abridged). The classical reference work, with near complete coverage of every verse in the Quran. The deepest classical reading of the three.
- Maarif Al-Quran. Mufti Muhammad Shafi's contemporary tafsir, with high coverage and a more accessible modern presentation.
- Tazkirul Quran. A shorter, more recent commentary covering selected verses. Useful when you want a focused topical reading.
Why we call it a Lab
The three tafsirs come from a public API run by Quran Foundation. Each one returns its data in a slightly different shape, and coverage varies between them. Our job is to present those gaps and repetitions in a way that does not torture a screen reader user with redundant content or long awkward silences.
Today, when several consecutive verses share the same commentary, we render the commentary once and tell you which verse range it applies to. When a verse has no commentary in the chosen tafsir, we say so explicitly so a screen reader user is not left wondering whether something is missing or just slow to load. That kind of presentation tuning is why we still call it a Lab.
How to use it
You can browse by surah and by page. Each page contains twenty verses by default. Use your screen reader's heading navigation to move between verses. Each verse has a clear heading with the surah name and the verse number, the Arabic text, and the tafsir text underneath.
To open the Tafsir Lab:
- The main navigation menu under Islamic Tools.
- Directly at gablvm.org/quran/tafsir.
What is coming
This is an early version. We are looking at adding bookmarks for verses you want to come back to, search across tafsir text, and saved tafsir preferences. If a particular feature would help your study, write to [email protected].