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

God, peace and blessings of God be upon him, said: "The Qur'an was revealed in seven ahruf (modes); disputation regarding the Qur'an is disbelief"—three times—"so whatever of it you recognize, act upon it, and whatever of it you are ignorant of, refer it to the one who knows it." (1)

8 - ʿUbayd ibn Asbāṭ ibn Muḥammad narrated to me, saying: My father narrated to us, from Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr, from Abū Salama, from Abū Hurayra, who said: The Messenger of God, peace and blessings of God be upon him, said: "The Qur'an was revealed in seven ahruf (modes): All-Knowing, All-Wise, All-Forgiving, All-Merciful." (2)

9 - Abū Kurayb narrated to us, saying: ʿAbda ibn Sulaymān narrated to me, from Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr, from Abū Salama, from Abū Hurayra, from the Prophet, peace and blessings of God be upon him, the like of it.

10 - Muḥammad ibn Ḥumayd al-Rāzī narrated to us, saying: Jarīr ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd narrated to us, from Mughīra, from Wāṣil ibn Ḥayyān, from someone he mentioned, from Abū al-Aḥwaṣ, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd, who said: The Messenger of God, peace and blessings of God be upon him, said: "The Qur'an was revealed in seven ahruf (modes); for every mode thereof there is an exoteric aspect and an esoteric aspect, for every mode there is a limit (ḥadd), and for every limit there is a point of ascension." (3)

(1) Hadith 7: Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal narrated it in his Musnad (no. 7976, vol. 2, p. 300, al-Halabi edition) from Anas b. ʿIyāḍ. Ibn Ḥibbān narrated it in his Ṣaḥīḥ (no. 73, with the commentary of Aḥmad Muḥammad Shākir) from Abū Yaʿlā, from Abū Khaythama, from Anas b. ʿIyāḍ. Ibn Kathīr quoted it in al-Tafsīr (2:102) from the Musnad of Abū Yaʿlā, and in Faḍāʾil al-Qurʾān (p. 63) from the Musnad of Aḥmad. It is in Majmaʿ al-Zawāʾid (7:151). Ibn Kathīr attributed it in al-Faḍāʾil to al-Nasāʾī, and it appears he meant al-Nasāʾī's book al-Tafsīr.
(2) Hadiths 8 and 9: Aḥmad narrated it in al-Musnad (no. 8372, vol. 2, p. 332, Halabi) from Muḥammad b. Bishr, and (no. 9676, vol. 2, p. 440) from Ibn Numayr, both from Muḥammad b. ʿAmr—who is Muḥammad b. ʿAmr b. ʿAlqama—from Abū Salama, who is Ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. ʿAwf. Al-Haythamī mentioned it in Majmaʿ al-Zawāʾid (7:151), making it another narration for the first hadith, then said: "Aḥmad narrated it in its entirety with two chains of transmission, and the narrators of one of them are the narrators of the Ṣaḥīḥ. Al-Bazzār narrated something similar." Another hadith of Abū Hurayra will follow under no. 45.
(3) Hadiths 10 and 11: This is a single hadith with two weak chains of transmission. As for one of them, it is due to its being Broken (Munqati') because of the anonymity of its narrator: "from whoever mentioned it from Abū al-Aḥwaṣ." As for the other, it is because of "Ibrāhīm al-Hajarī," its narrator from Abū al-Aḥwaṣ. "Mughīra" in the first chain of transmission is Ibn Miqsam al-Ḍabbī, and he is reliable. "Wāṣil b. Ḥayyān" is al-Aḥdab, and he is reliable. "Abū al-Aḥwaṣ" is al-Jushamī, and his name is ʿAwf b. Mālik b. Naḍla, and he is a well-known reliable Successor (Tabi'i). "Mihrān" in the second chain of transmission is Ibn Abī ʿUmar al-ʿAṭṭār al-Rāzī, and he is reliable, but there is inconsistency in his narration from al-Thawrī. His sheikh Sufyān here is the Imam al-Thawrī. "Ibrāhīm al-Hajarī" is Ibrāhīm b. Muslim.
The hadith with this wording here was mentioned by al-Suyūṭī in al-Jāmiʿ al-Ṣaghīr (no. 2727), attributing it to al-Ṭabarānī in al-Muʿjam al-Kabīr, and he marked it with the sign of Hasan (Good), though we do not know its chain of transmission according to al-Ṭabarānī. As for its beginning, without his statement "and for every letter there is a limit (Al-Hadd)" etc., it is authentic and established; Ibn Ḥibbān narrated it in his Ṣaḥīḥ (no. 74). See Majmaʿ al-Zawāʾid (7:152, 153). His statement "maṭlaʿ" (point of ascent) is with a shadda on the ṭāʾ and a fatḥa on the lām. He said in al-Nihāya: "Meaning, for every limit there is an ascent to which one ascends from the knowledge of its science, and the maṭlaʿ is the place of looking out from a high position." Then he said: "It is also permissible for it to be: for every limit there is a maṭlaʿ (point of ascent), on the pattern of maṣʿad (ascent) and with its meaning." The explanation of the vocabulary of this hadith will follow on pages 24-25 of the Bulaq edition, after hadith 70.

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