Fakhr al-Din Razi فخر الدين محمد بن عمر الرازي

Imam Fakhr al-Din Muhammad ibn Umar al-Razi rahimahullah (544-606 AH / 1149-1210 CE) was one of the foremost Ash'ari theologians and Qur'anic exegetes of the classical Islamic tradition. Born in Rayy, near present-day Tehran, he studied under leading scholars and became a master of kalam (Islamic theology), philosophy, medicine, mathematics, and the Qur'anic sciences. His towering scholarly achievement is the Mafatih al-Ghayb, popularly known as al-Tafsir al-Kabir, one of the most expansive and rationally engaged commentaries on the Qur'an ever written. The work demonstrates extraordinary command of Arabic linguistics, theological disputation, and natural philosophy. Al-Razi also authored treatises in logic, metaphysics, and medicine, and he is recognized as one of the most prolific and intellectually formidable scholars of the sixth Islamic century.