Tafsir at-Tabari: Jami' al-Bayan - Dar al-Tarbiyah wa al-Turath Edition

{and strayed from the soundness of the way.”} [Sūrat al-Māʾida: 77].

If he says: “And what is your proof that they are these?”

It is said:

207- Aḥmad ibn al-Walīd al-Ramlī narrated to us, he said: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar narrated to us, he said: Sufyān ibn ʿUyayna narrated to us, from Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Khālid, from al-Shaʿbī, from ʿAdī ibn Abī Ḥātim, he said: The Messenger of God, peace and blessings of God be upon him, said regarding: “nor of those who go astray”: He said: “The Christians” (1).

208- Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar informed us: Shuʿba informed us, from Simāk, he said: I heard ʿAbbād ibn Ḥubaysh narrating from ʿAdī ibn Ḥātim, he said: The Messenger of God, peace and blessings of God be upon him, said to me: “Indeed, ‘those who go astray’ are the Christians.”

209- ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥasan narrated to me, he said: Muslim ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān narrated to us, he said: Muḥammad ibn Muṣʿab narrated to us, from Ḥammād ibn Salama, from Simāk ibn Ḥarb, from Murrī ibn Qaṭarī, from ʿAdī ibn Ḥātim, he said: I asked the Prophet, peace and blessings of God be upon him, about the statement of God: “nor of those who go astray”, he said: “The Christians are those who go astray.”

210- Ḥumayd ibn Masʿada al-Sāmī narrated to us, he said: Bishr ibn al-Mufaḍḍal narrated to us, he said: al-Jarīrī narrated to us, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Shaqīq: That a man came to the Messenger of God, peace and blessings of God be upon him, while he was besieging Wādī al-Qurā. He said: I asked, “Who are these?” He said: “These are those who go astray: the Christians.”

211- Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm narrated to us, he said: Ibn ʿUlayya narrated to us, from Saʿīd al-Jarīrī, from ʿUrwa — meaning Ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Qays — from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Shaqīq, from the Messenger of God, peace and blessings of God be upon him, a similar report (2).

(1) These hadiths, reports, and traditions 207–220, in the exegesis of {those who are astray}, their initial parts previously appeared in the exegesis of {those who have evoked [Your] anger}, along with their documentation, in numbers 193–206, with some reordering.
(2) Hadith 211 – This chain of transmission previously appeared under 197 where this "ʿUrwa" was not given a lineage, and in the commentary on Hadith 198, Ibn Kathīr referred to the narration of "ʿUrwa" without mentioning his lineage either. Al-Ṭabarī clarified here that he is "ʿUrwa ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Qays". I prefer the view that the word "Qays" was corrupted by copyists from the word "Qushayr". For I have never found in the biographical dictionaries anyone named "ʿUrwa ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Qays", and it is very unlikely that they would omit him when he narrates from one of the major Successors. The one in this generation is "ʿUrwa ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Qushayr Abū Muhill al-Kūfī", who is given a biography in al-Tahdhīb 7: 186, al-Tārīkh al-Kabīr by al-Bukhārī 4/1/34, al-Jarḥ wa-al-Taʿdīl by Ibn Abī Ḥātim 3/1/397, al-Thiqāt by Ibn Ḥibbān: 574, and al-Kunā by al-Dūlābī 2: 135. The latter two mentioned another opinion regarding his grandfather's name, that it was "Bashīr". And "Abū Muhill" is with a fatḥa on the mīm and hāʾ, as mentioned by al-Dhahabī in al-Mushtabih: 508.

Translation · EN

Notes