Tafseer of the Salaf
Imam Ibn Taymiyyah
An Introduction to the Principles of Tafseer © 1993 Al-Hidaayah
The first thing to know is that the Prophet, peace be upon him,
has explained the meaning of the Qur'aan to his companions, just
as he taught its words. The Divine command: "You should explain
to people what has been sent down to them," [16:44] calls for
the former just as it calls for the latter. Abu `Abd al-Rahmaan
al-Sulamee has said that whenever the people who taught them the
Qur'aan like `Uthmaan ibn Affaan (radiyallaahu `anhu), `Abdullaah
ibn Mas`ood (radiyallaahu `anhumaa) and others learned then verses
of the Qur'aan from the Prophet (sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam)
and did not proceed further unless they had understood whatever
ideas and regulations those verses contained. They used to say:
"We learned the text of the Qur'aan and studied its ideas and
injunctions all together." This explains why they spent such
a long time in learning a chapter (soorah). Anas (radiyallaahu `anhu)
has said: "We used to hold in great esteem the one who learned
the two soorahs of the Qur'aan: al-Baqarah and Aali-Imraan".
Ibn `Umar (radiyallaahu `anhu) spent many years, and according to
Maalik, a complete eight years, in learning these soorahs. In fact,
the companions were submitting to the command of Allaah:
"This is a blessed Book; We have revealed it to you so that
you contemplate over it," [38:29] and
"Don't they contemplate over the Qur'aan!", [47:24] and,
"Have they not pondered over (Allaah's) words!". [23:68]
Obviously, you cannot contemplate words unless you understand their
meaning. That is why Allaah has said:
"We have revealed it as an Arabic Qur'aan so that you comprehend
it", [12:22]
and to comprehend the Qur'aan means to understand its meaning.
Everyone knows that a book is meant for understanding, not just
for reading. This is all the more true of the Qur'aan. No one ever
reads a book on a subject: medicine, mathematics or any other, without
trying to understand it. The same is true of the Qur'aan, on which
rests our well-being and happiness, our religion and life. This
is why the companions of the Prophet (sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam)
differed little in their exegesis of the Qur'aan. Their successors
(al-Tabi'een) have differed comparatively more; however their differences,
as compared to those of the latter generations, are negligible.
As a rule, the better a generation, the more profound is its understanding
and knowledge of the Qur'aan, and the greater is the agreement of
its scholars on its exegesis. Among the successors there were many
who studied the whole Qur'aan with the companions. For instance,
Mujaahid studied the entire Qur'aan, as he has himself said, with
Ibn `Abbaas (radiyallaahu `anhuma), he questioned him about each
and every verse, and noted all his comments. That is why al-Thawree
has said: "If you get the comments of Mujaahid it is enough."
This also explains why al-Shaafi`ee, al-Bukhaaree and various other
scholars, as well as Imaam Ahmad and others who have commented on
the Qur'aan quote the words of Mujaahid more than the words of any
one else. The point I am stressing is that the successors learned
the exegesis (tafseer) of the Qur'aan from the companions as they
learned the hadeeth of the Prophet (sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam)
from them. This is not at all to deny that they exercised their
minds on different verses and expressed their opinions, as they
did with regard to various ahaadeeth of the Prophet (sallallaahu
`alayhi wa sallam).
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