he Quraan, God’s final book of revelation to
man, represents the primary source of the principles which constitute
the way of life known as Islam. The passages of the Quran contain advice
and guidance in the form of laws, parables, stories, and arguments for
those who choose to believe in God and the Day of Judgment. Hence, a
believer’s success and happiness in this life and the next largely
depend on his understanding, internalization, and application of the
concepts contained in the Book. However, the depth of comprehension of
the Quran meanings will vary from individual to individual due to
natural differences in intelligence. This variation existed even among
the sahabah (companions of Prophet Muhammad (r ), in spite of the
Quran’s clarity of expression and its revelation in seven different
dialects. Moreover, Allah, the Most Wise, chose to place generalities in
the Quran, some of which He later explained in its other verses, while
some he explained only to the Prophet (r). The Prophet (r ) knew and
understood the Quran completely because Allah had chosen him as its
vehicle and explained it all to him. Hence, Allah said in one verse: ©
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8
“Verily,
collecting the Qur’an (for you) and reciting it (to you) is My21
responsibility, so when I read it to you, listen to it. Then it is upon
Me to explain it.”22
Therefore, it was the Prophet’s job to
explain the Quran to his followers by his actions, as well as his
statements. Allah stated this in the Qur’an: ( “I have revealed the
Reminder (Qur’aan) to you (O Muhammad) so that you may explain to people
what has been revealed to them.”
Consequently, the
sahaabah
all turned to the Prophet (r ) whenever possible during his lifetime for
the taf seer (explanation, understanding, interpretation) of the
Qur’aan. For example, Ibn Mas‘ood related that when the following verse
was revealed:
“Those who believe and do not obscure their faith
with transgression ( thulm ), for them there is security, and they are
rightly guided,”24
some of the companions became distressed, because
the general linguistic
meaning of
thulm
covers any kind of wrong, major or minor, and none of
them Literally, ‘Our.’ The
‘royal We’ is barely used in English, but it is a common feature of
Arabic speech, used to indicate the importance of the speaker. It is my
standard practice to translate this ‘We’ as ‘I,’ since the literal
translation is a frequent cause of confusion for English speakers. 22 S
oorah al-Qiyaamah (75):17-9. 23 Soorah an-Nahl (16):44. 24 S oorah al-An
‘ aam (6):82.
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were
free from error. However, when they approached the Prophet (r) about
it, he replied ٌ I t is not as you all think. I t is no m ore than what
L uqmaan said to his son, ‘ Verily, shirk (associating partners with G
od) is th e greatest form of thulm. ’ 25”26 Thus the Prophet (r)
clarified for them that the broader meaning of thulm was not intended in
the first verse; rather it was used to refer to shirk . In this
incident, the Prophet (r ) explained the Qur’aan by the Qur’aan,
demonstrating the first step in the divinely ordained method of
understanding and interpretation of the Qur’aan that was established for
all generations of Muslims until the Day of Resurrection. After the
Prophet’s death, the sahaabah turned to those among themselves who were
more gifted in understanding the Qur’aan and who had been able to spend
more time with the Prophet (r) for interpretation and explanation of the
Qur’aan. Among the sahaabah who became the most noted for their
ability to make t a f s eer of the Qur’aan are the following: The four
Righteous Caliphs,27 the Prophet’s wife, ‘Aaishah bint Abee Bakr, Ibn
Mas‘ood, Ibn ‘Abbaas, Ubayy ibn Ka‘b, Zayd ibn Thaabit, Aboo Moosaa
al-Ash‘aree, ‘Abdullaah ibn az-Zubayr, Anas ibn Maalik, ‘Abdullaah ibn
‘Umar, Jaabir ibn ‘Abdullaah, and ‘Abdullaah ibn ‘Amr ibn al-‘Aas.28
Within the space of twenty-five years after the Prophet’s death, the
sahaabah carried Islaam to all corners of the known world, toppling in
the process the great empires of Persia and Byzantine. Wherever the
Muslim armies stopped their advance, some of the sahaabah would settle
and begin teaching those who came into Islaam the recitation and
interpretation of the Qur’aan. For this reason, the knowledge of taf
seer spread throughout the Muslim realm, and centers of Qur’aanic
learning sprung up everywhere. Among the people who gathered around
the sahaabah were some outstanding individuals who remained their
students and absorbed their knowledge. These students became known as
taabi ‘ oon . Each s ahaabee carried with him a portion
of 25 S oorah Luqmaan (31):13. 26 S a hih Muslim ,
vol. 1, p. 72, no. 226. 27 Aboo Bakr as-Siddeeq, ‘Umar ibn al-Khattaab,
‘Uthmaan ibn ‘Affaan, and ‘Alee ibn Abee Taalib. 28 A l-I tqaan fee ‘
Uloom al-Qur ’ aan, vol. 2, p. 239.
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