- The Glorious Qur'an and
Exegesis (Tafsir)
-
The
Science of Qur'anic Commentary and
the Different Groups of Commentators:
After the death
of the Prophet a group of his companions, including Ubayy ibn
Ka'b, 'Abd Allah ibn Mas'ud, Jabir ibn 'Abd Allah al-Ansarl, Abu
Sa'ld al-Khudrl, 'Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr, 'Abd Allah ibn 'Umar,
Anas, Abu Hurayrah, Abu Musa, and, above all, the famous 'Abd
Allah ibn 'Abbas, were occupied with the Science of Commentary.
Just as they had heard the Prophet explaining the meanings of
the verses, they would transmit it orally to other trustworthy
persons.
The traditions
specifically concerned with the subject of Qur'anic verses
number over two hundred and forty; many were transmitted through
weak chains of transmission and the texts of some have been
rejected as incorrect or forged. Sometimes the transmission
would include commentaries based on personal judgments rather
than on a narration of the actual sayings, hadiths, from the
Prophet. The later Sunni commentators considered this kind of
commentary as part of the body of Sayings of The Prophet, since
the companions were learned in the science of Qur'anic
commentary. They argued that these companions had aquired their
knowledge of this science from the Prophet himself and that it
was unlikely they would say anything which they themselves had
invented.
There is,
however, no absolute proof for their reasoning. A large
proportion of these sayings, or traditions, about the reasons
and historical circumstances of the revelation of verses do not
possess an acceptable chain of narration. It should be noted
that many of the narrators like Ka'b al-Akhbar, were learned
companions who had belonged to the Jewish faith before accepting
Islam. Moreover, it should not be overlooked that Ibn 'Abbas
usually expressed the meanings of verses in poetry. In one of
his narrations over two hundred questions of Nafi' ibn al-Azraq
are replied to in the form of poetry; al-Suyutl in his book, al-Itqan,
related one hundred and ninety of these questions. It is
evident, therefore, that many of the narrations made by the
commentators amongst the companions cannot be counted as actual
narrations from the Prophet himself; therefore, such additional
material related by the companions must be rejected.
The second
group of commentators were the companions of the followers (tabi'un),
who were the students of the companions. Amongst them we find
Mujahid, Sa'ld ibn Jubayr, 'Ikrimah and Dahhak. Also from this
group were Hasan al-Basri, 'Ata' ibn Abi Rabah,, 'Ata' ibn Abi
Muslim, Abu al-'Aliyah, Muhammad ibn Ka'b al-Qurazl, Qatadah, 'Atiyah,
Zayd ibn Aslam, Ta'us al-Yamam." The third group were comprised
of the students of the second group, namely, Rabi' ibn Anas, 'Abd
al-Rahman ibn Zayd ibn Aslam, Abu Salih al-Kalbi and others.
The
Tabi'un
sometimes narrated the commentary on a verse as a tradition of
the Prophet or of the companions and, sometimes, they explained
its meaning without attributing a narrator to the source, this
they did especially when there was any doubt as to the identity
of the narrator. The later commentators treat these narrations
as traditions of the Prophet, but count them as mawquf in their
science of the levels of hadiths (that is as a tradition whose
chain of narration does not reach back to the Prophet) .
The fourth
group comprised the first compilers of commentaries, like Sufyan
ibn 'Uyaynah, Wah' ibn al-Jarrah, Shu`ban al-Hajjaj and 'Abd ibn
Humayd; others from this group include Ibn Jarir al-Tabarl, the
author of the famous Qur'anic Commentary. This group recorded
the sayings of the companions and the followers of the
companions with a chain of narrators in their works of
commentary; they avoided expressing personal opinions except,
perhaps, Ibn Jarir al-Tabarl who sometimes expressed his views
by indicating his preference when discus- sing two similar
traditions. The basis of the work of later groups may be traced
to this group. The fifth group omitted the chain of narrators in
their writings and contented themselves with a simple relation
of the text of the traditions. Some scholars regard these
commentators as the source of varying views in the commentaries
by connecting many traditions to a companion or a follower
without verifying their validity or mentioning their chain of
narration.
Consequently,
confusion has arisen allowing many false traditions to enter the
body of traditions, thus undermining the reputation of this
section of hadith literature. Careful examination of the chains
of transmission of the traditions leaves one in doubt as to the
extent of the deceitful additions and false testimonies. Many
conflicting traditions can be traced to one companion or
follower and many traditions, which are complete fabrications,
may be found amongst this body of narrations. Thus reasons for
the revelation of a particular verse, including the abrogating
and abrogated verses, do not seem to ac- cord with the actual
order of the verses.
No more than
one or two of the traditions are found to be acceptable when
submitted to such an examination. It is for this reason that
Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, who himself was born before this
generation of narrators, said, "Three things have no sound base:
military virtues, bloody battles and the traditions pertaining
to Qur'anic commentary." Imam al-Shafi' relates that only about
one hundred traditions from Ibn 'Abbas have been confirmed as
valid. The sixth group consists of those commentators who
appeared after the growth and development of the various Islamic
Sciences and each undertook the study of Qur'anic commentary
according to his specialization: al-Zajjaj studied the subject
from the grammatical point of view; al-Wahidi and Abu Hayyan'
investigated the verses by studying the inflection of the verbs,
the vowels and the diacritical points.
There is also
commentary on the rhetoric and eloquence of the verses by al-Zamakhsharii
in his work entitled al- Kashshaf. There is a theological
discussion in the "Grand Commentary" of Fakhr al-Dm al-Razi. The
gnosis of Ibn al-'Arabi and 'Abd al-Razzaq al-Kashanl treated in
their commentaries. Other narrators, like al-Tha'lab, record the
history of transmission of the traditions. Some commentators,
among them al-Qurtubl, concentrate on aspects of fiqh
(jurisprudence).
There also
exists a number-of commentaries composed of many of these
sciences, such as Ruh al-Bayan by Shaykh Isma'il Haqql, Ruh. al-ma'ani
by Shihab al Din Mahmud al-Alusl al-Baghdadl Chara'ib al-Qur'an
by Nizam al-Din al-Nisaburi. This group rendered a great service
to the Science of Qur'anic commentary in that it brought the
Science out of a state of stagnation (characteristic of the
fifth group before it), and developed it into a Science of
precise investigation and theory.
However, if one
were to examine closely the precision of this group's research,
one would see. that much of its Qur'anic commentary imposes its
theories onto the Qur'an rather than allowing the content of the
verses to speak for themselves.
* * *
The Methods
Used by the Shi'ite Cmmentators
and their
Different Groupings
All the groups
mentioned above are Sunni commentators. Their method, used in
the earliest commentaries of this period, was based on ijtihad,
that is, the reports of the companions and the followers of the
companions were examined according to certain rules in order to
reach an acceptable understanding of the text. This resulted in
varying opinions amongst those making ijtihad and caused
disorder, contradiction and, even, fabrication to enter into the
body of the traditions. The method employed by the Shi'ite
commentators, however, was different, with the result that the
patterning of the groups was also different.
The Shi'ite
commentators in their study of a verse of the Qur'an, viewed the
explanation given by the Prophet as proof of the meaning of the
verse, they did not accept the saying of the companions, or the
followers, as indisputable proof that the tradition was from the
Prophet. The Shiite commentators only recognized as valid an
unbroken chain of narration from the Prophet and through members
of his family. Accordingly, in using and transmitting the verses
concerning Qur'anic commentary, they restricted themselves to
the use of traditions transmitted by the Prophet and by the
Imams of the Prophet's family. This has given rise to the
following groups:
The first group
comprises those who have learned these traditions from the
Prophet and from the Imams of the Prophet's family, studying and
recording them according to their own method but not in any
particular order. Among them we may mention such scholars as
Zararah, Muhammad ibn Muslim, Ma'ruf and Jarir who were
companions of the fifth and sixth Imams.
The second
group comprises the first compilers of the commentaries, like
Furat ibn Ibrahim al-Kufi, Abu Hamzah al-Thumali, Muhammad al-'Ayyashi,
'Ali ibn Ibrahim al-Qummi and al-Nu'mani who lived between the
second and fourth centuries after HiUrah. The method of this
group was similar to that of the fourth Sunni group of
Commentators. Thus, they avoided any kind of ijtihad or passing
of judgment. We should remember that the Imams of the Prophet's
family were living amongst Muslims and available for questioning
(on matters of commentary, for example) for a period of almost
three hundred years. Thus the first groups were not divided
chronologically but rather according to their relationship with
the Imams. There are very few who recorded the tradition without
a chain of transmission.
As an example,
we should mention one of the students of al-'Ayyashi who omitted
to record the chains of transmission. It was his work, instead
of the original of al-'Ayyashi which came into common use. The
third group comprises masters of various sciences, like al-Sharif
al-Radl who provided a commentary concerned with Qur'anic
language and Shaykh al-Tusl who wrote a commentary and analysis
on metaphysical matters. Included, too, is Sadr al-DIn al-Shirazl's
philosophic work, al-Maybudi al-Kunabadl's gnostic commentary
and 'Abd 'Ah al-Huwayzl's commentary Nur al-thaqalayn.
Hashim al-Bahrani
composed the commentary al-Burhan' and al-Fayd al-Kashani
compiled the work known as al-Safi. There were others who
brought together many different themes to their commentaries,
like Shaykh al-Tabarsi who in his Majma' al-bayan researches
different fields of language, grammar, Qur'an recitation, gnosis
of death, after-life and paradise, and knowledge of the
traditions.
(Allamah Tabatabai, The
Qur'an in Islam, p. 47-51)
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