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

and he said: "Do not ask me about the Qurʾān, but ask the one who claims that nothing of it is hidden from him"—meaning ʿIkrima.

102- And Ibn al-Muthannā narrated to us, he said: Saʿīd ibn ʿĀmir narrated to us, from Shuʿba, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī al-Safar, he said: Al-Shaʿbī said: "By Allah, there is no verse except that I have asked about it, but it is a matter of narrating from Allah."(1)

103- Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm narrated to me, he said: Ibn ʿUlayya narrated to us, from Ṣāliḥ—meaning Ibn Muslim—he said: A man narrated to me, from al-Shaʿbī, he said: "Three things I will not speak regarding until I die: the Qurʾān, the Spirit (Rūḥ), and opinion (Raʾy)." (2)

And what resembles such reports? (3)

If it is said to him: As for the report narrated from the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of God be upon him, that he used not to explain anything of the Qurʾān except a specific number of verses, this confirms what we stated in the preceding chapter earlier, which is: that among the Interpretation of the Qurʾān is that whose knowledge cannot be grasped except through the explanation of the Messenger, peace and blessings of God be upon him. That is the detailed explanation of the general principles contained in its verses—concerning Allah's command and prohibition,(4) His lawful and prohibited, His prescribed limits and obligations, and all other meanings of the laws of His religion, which are summarized in the apparent text of the Revelation, and which servants need to have explained—the knowledge of whose Interpretation cannot be grasped except through an explanation from Allah upon the tongue of His Messenger, peace and blessings of God be upon him, and whatever resembles that among what the verses of the Qurʾān contain of the rest of His rulings whose explanation to His creation Allah assigned to His Messenger, peace and blessings of God be upon him. Thus, no one among Allah's creation knows the Interpretation of that except through the explanation of the Messenger, peace and blessings of God be upon him, nor did the Messenger of Allah

(1) All the preceding reports were quoted by Ibn Kathīr from al-Ṭabarī in his Tafsir 1: 13-14.
(2) Report 103- Ṣāliḥ ibn Muslim: He is al-Bakrī, and he is trustworthy of the highest tier, as Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Qaṭṭān said, in what Ibn Abī Ḥātim transmitted in al-Jarḥ wa-l-Taʿdīl 2/1: 413. Al-Bukhārī also included his biography in al-Kabīr 2/2: 291. He is among those who narrated from al-Shaʿbī, but he narrated from him here through an intermediary; a narration from him on the authority of al-Shaʿbī will come under No. 114.
(3) This is the end of the question that began on p. 84.
(4) In the printed edition: "and that clarifies". The reference in his statement "and that" is to the explanation of the Messenger of Allah, Peace and blessings of God be upon him.

Translation · EN

Notes