Selections from the Comprehensive Exposition of the Interpretation of the Verses of the Qur'an: Volume II

270 Pages·2017·118.787 MB·English

by  Abu Ja'far Muhammad b. Jarir al-Tabari

TABAR!
Selections from
The Comprehensive Exposition
of the Interpretation of the
Verses of the Q!!r'an
VOLUME II
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THE ROYAL AAL AL-BAYT INSTITUTE
FOR ISLAMIC THOUGHT
and
THE ISLAMIC TEXTS SOCIETY
Translated by
Scott C. Lucas
Copyright 0 The Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought 2017 CONTENTS
This first edition published 2017 by Abbreviations VII
THE ROYAL AAL AL-BAIT INSTITUTE FOR fSLAMIC Tii.OUGHT & Translator's Introduction IX
THE lsL\MIC TExTs SocrnTY
Selections from
MILLER'S HOUSE
KtNGS Miu LANE THE COMPREHENSIVE EXPOSITION OF THE,_
GREAT SHELFORD INTERPRETATION OF THE VERSES OF THE QYR AN
CAMBRIDGE C822 SEN, UK. VOLUME II
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data. The Smoke: Surat al-Dukhan (44:1-59)
A catalogue record for this book is The Beneficent: Surat al-Rahman (55:1--'78) 55
available from the British Library. 132
The Inevitable Occasion: SOrar al-Waqta (56:1---96)
210
ISBN: 9781911141 2,5 9 VOL I Iron: Surat al-Hadid (57:1-29) 264
The Gathering: Surat al-1:!ashr (59:18-24)
ISBN: 9781911141266 VOL 11 272
IS8N: 978 191 I 141 27 3 SET OF 2 VOLUMES TSohvee Rreeisgunrtrye:c Stiuorna:t SaOl- rMatu allk- Q(6!Y7:31m-3a0 ()7 5: 1-40) 290
Alf rights rtJtr11('d. No part ef this p11blication may be reprod11ced, The Most High: Surat al-A'la {87:1-19) 335
itmalled in retrie110I systems, or transmitted in any farm The Sun: Surat al-Shams (91 :1-15) 348
or by a11y means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, The Night: Surat al-Lay! (92:1-21) 364
rea,rdit1g, or otherwise, witho11t the prior written The Earthquake: Surat al-Zalzala (99:1-8) 384
permis5io11 of the p11blishm. The Chargers: Surat al-'Adiyit (100:1-u) 393
Rivalry: Surat al-Takathur (1 02: 1-8) 407
The TIshlaem Rico yTaelx Atsa Sl aolc-iBetayy th aIns sntiot uretes pfoonr sIisblailmiriyc fTohr othueg phet rasnisdt ence The Disbelievers: Sarac al-KafirOn (rn9:1-6) 417
or accuracy of URLs for external or third-in.rry internet websites Aid: Surat al-Nair (uo:1-3) 420
referred to in 1hi1 publication, and docs not guarantee that any Sincerity: Surat al-Jkhlai (u2:1-4) 427
content o:ni. cscuucr;ha twe eobrs aitpepsr ios,p roira twei.l l remain, Daybreak: Surat al-Falaq (up-5) 437
People: Surat al-Nas (u4:1~) 445
Cover design copyright O The Islamic Texts Society
PRJNTEd Bv MEGA PRINTING 1N TuRk:Ev
TABAR!
Appendix A: The Disconnected Letters (al-Muqa.f!liir) 449
Appendix B: Tabart's Teachers 467
Appendix C: Tabar'i's ~r'an Interpreters 483
Appendix D: Tabari's Poets 499
Appendix E: References to Arabic Passages of Tafsir al-Tabari 505 ABBREVIATIONS
Bibliography 507
General Index 515 Commemary: JTaa'fabar rMi. u/T,airme mCaodm bm.Jeat1r1iraaryl- T01a1b arlr,ie, bQei!1r1g'd anll abbyr idAgbeidi
trarislation efjiimi' al-bayii11 'an-ta'wil iiy al-OEr'au,
with an introduction and notes by John Cooper.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1987 •
Jalal al-Din al-Suyii!l. Al-Durr al-111a11tl1iir J;'l-
Al-Durr al-mantltiir:
tafiir [bi-]al-ma'thilr. 7 vols. Beirut: Dar al-Ku tub
al-'llmiyya, 2004.
TabarI. Tafsir al-Tabari: Jiimi' al-bayiin <011-ta'wil
Diir Hajar:
iiy al-Q!fr'ii11. Ed. 'Abd Allah al-Turkl and
Markaz al-Buhiith wa'l-Dirasat al-'Arabiyya
wa'l-Islamiyya ·bi-Dar Hajar. 27 vols. Cairo:
Hajar, 2001. Available at: http://www.archive.
org/details/TafsirTabariTurki.
E11cyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Brill
El':
Online, 2012.
Guillaume: Guillaume, Alfred. The Life of Mu/,ammad: A
Tra11slation of Ib11 Ishaq's Si rat Rasul Allah. Karachi:
Oxford University Press, 2001 [1955].
Ha,,a: Hava,J. G. Arabic-E11glish Dictio11ary. New Delhi:
Good word Books, 20m [ 1899].
J:Ia/abi or Jami' al-bayiin: TabarI. Jiimic al-bayiin 'an-ta'wil ay al-Q!r'iin. 30
vols. Cairo: Mugafa al-Babl al-J:Ialabi, 1954-
1968.
Lane: Lane, Edward.An Arabic-English Lexicon. London:
Williams and Norgate, 1863. Available at: http://
www.tyndalearchive.corn/tabs/lane/.
A1-Mubarrar al-wajiz: Ibn cAtiyya. Al-Mllbarrar al-wajiz fl-tajsir al-kitiib
al-dziz. 6 vols. Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-'llnl..iyya,
2007.
VII
VI
TABAR!
Q. Q!Jr'an.
Tafsir al-Tabari: !abari. T~.(sir al-Tabari: Jiimi' al-bayiin 'an-ta'wil
ay :t~Qjr an. Ed. Mai)mud Shakir and Ahmad
Sha-kir. 16 vols. Cairo: Dar al-Ma'-an· f' 1957-·1 969.
TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION
Wright: W~1ght, Willfam. Arabic Grammar. 2 vols. in I
Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, 2005 ..
I. THE AUTHOR: MUf:'IAMMAD B.JARiR AL-TABARi
Abu Ja'far Mui)ammad b. Jarlr al-Tabarl was a scholar's scholar.' He col-
lected an extraordinary quantity of religious and historical reports, and
produced exceptional books, only a few of which survive. Tabari was
born in 224-25/839 in Amul, Tabaristan (present-day northern Iran) into
a prosperous, landowning family, who supported his lifetime of scholarly
pursuits. From the ages of 12-17, he studied and collected thousands of
isuad-supported narrations of early Muslims' opinions in Rayy (near mod-
ern Tehran). He was also an avid collector of poetry and history. From the
ages of 17-31, he undertook two longjourneys in the search of knowl-
edge: one of which brought him to the Iraqi cities of Baghdad, Basra and
Kufa, and the second of which took him co cities in Syria, Palestine and
Egypt. He setcled in Baghdad in 256/870, where he composed books and
taught until his death in 310/923. Widely considered a master scholar and
an absolutely independent jurist (mujtahid mu/laq), his books were highly
esteemed during his lifetime. Unlike most scholars, Tabari never mar-
ried, devoting himself entirely to his work. He also avoided holding any
government positions, although he served for a few years as a tutor for
the son of an 'Abbasid wazir.
Over the course of his life, Tabari cited reports from more than 4-25
teachers .. : He included at least one report from 148 of his teachers in
the selections of his Q!!r'3.nic commentary included in this translation.
Fourteen of these teachers are unknown, as none of che major biographical
1 Sources fo! the life ofTabari includ~: Franz Rosenthal's introduction to Tabari, Tiu HiJtory
of al-Tabari, Vol./: Central lntroduct1011 a11d From tht Crtatio11 to tht Flood, translated by Franz
R~s~nrhal ~A,lbany: SUNY P~ess, 1989). 5-134; C. E. Bosworth, "al-Tabari'', E/1; Claude
G,l.ho1, E~rgest!,· Lan~ut ti Thrologit hi Islam: L 'Exigfst Corariiqut dt Tabtlfi (Paris: Libra ire
Philos~p~19ue Vn~, _1990), tg-68; al-Kha~ib al-Baghd:idi, Ttirikh madi11at al-so/am. ed.
Bashshar Awwad Ma ruf, 17 vols. (Beirut: Dar al-Gharb al-lsl:imi 2001) 2-548-56-y- -
al-I:J~mawi, Mu'ja_m a~-11da~~• (Beirut: ~:ir al-Kutub al-'llm.iyya, • 1991),' S :~42-'75 ;. Shaa;~:
~.I-Orn al-Dhahab1, S1yar a lam al-nuba/a , ed. Shu'ayb al-Arn:i'U.t et al 28 I (B ·
Mu'assasat al-R.is:ila, 2001), 14:267_82_ ·• vo s. e1rut:
2 The_ most thor~ugh study of Tabari's tc.ichc:rs is Akram Mubammad al-Athari M ,.
slmyukh al-Tabari (Amman and Cairo: n.p., 2005). Sec also Gilliot, £xi.gist, l9-J3. ' u;am
IX
VIII
TABAR[ Tramlator's I,aroduttio,i
dictionaries of early Muslim scholars have an entry on them. The vast Most ofTabari's books arc lost. i Ht• s o ri lg infaral wmoerknsts o on fj uhriiss psrtuuddeyn ocef
majority of these teachers lived in Iraq: 40 were in Baghdad, 32 in Basra, h e vanished with barely a trace, and ~n y Por~ions of his incomplete
26 in Kufo and 2 in Wasit. Egypt, presumably the capital city of Fustat juarvi stic normative PI u ra 1i·s m (ikht(i liIij ) Js-uIr vivTea.h dl,;b al-iithiir, h ave surv ivcd
(Old Cairo), was the second most important location for Tabari, with eight study of the legal . .ia ,1 :iar Mahmud Shakir. A fragn~ent
teachers, followed by Homs, Syria (six teachers) and Merv, Turkmenistan and were published by the Egypt~•~;~;ab;irf t m~'alim al-din, survives ;" a
(five teachers). He cited three teachers each from the Palestinian cities of of a short theological work,"~\ b . ublished. The only comp ct_e
Ashkelon and Ram.la, and two teachers in Rayy and his hometown of unique manuscript in Spain an . ~as ee1; _P short creed and possibly his
Amul. Finally, he quoted reports from just a single teacher in the cities works to have survi·v e d '. in •a ddrei tihoins Ttoiir ik11/15 al-rusul wa'l-11111 / ii k (H"i s r-ory.{
of Ahwaz, Beirut, Gaza, Harran, Jerusalem, Mosul, Nishapur and Raqqa. book Oil ~r'anic readm~s, a) and his vast ~r'anic commentary, Janu
Interestingly. he does not cite any teachers in th.is translated selection of his of the Messengers and Kmg,~ I C . hcnsive Exposition of the
commentary from Damascus, Mecca or Medina. al-bayii11 ,a n ta ,w ,- 1 f-l) , a /-,'<-',..u! r an (T 1c ,o_ m) pl rc
Most of these teachers narrated a variety of reports from multi- Interpretation of the Verses of the ~ran .
ple sources, while a few of them narrated what most Western scholars
have been reluctant to call "books"-large numbers of reports with II. THE COMMENTARY,
an identical chain of transmitters, or is11iid. Teachers who narrated a The Comprehe11si1,e Exposition of th,~
diverse array of Companion, Successor and occasionally Prophetic Interpretation of the Verses of the Q!Jr an
reports include: Mul,ammad b. Bashshar (d. 252/866) and Mul:,ammad b. . . belon s to a small cluster of four early
al-Mutbanna (d. 252/866) in Basra; Abu Kurayb Mul:,ammad b. al-'Alii' The Comprehe11sive E~pos1t1011 d t! the collection of isttiid-supported
ri,,r'anic commentaries devote . T b - 'Abd b. Humayd
(d. 248/862) and Sufyan b. Waki' (d. 247/861) in Kufa; and Ya'qub b. d / .r.- b''l ia'thiir Prior to . a an, · I
Ibrahim al-Dawraqi in Baghdad. Scholars who narrated books of early reports, ca lie a -ta1s" J _,,d . k f chis genre that is lost, alchoug 1
al-Kissi (d. 249/863) compose a wofit o h references to it in Suyil~i's
exegesis to Tabarl include: Bishr b. Mu'adh al-'Aqadi (d. 245/859-60) fits content rom t e b-
in Basra; Ytmus b. 'Abd al-A'la (d. 264/877-88) in Egypt; and three one can get a sense o T b _, ·unior contemporaries- Ibn A t
al-D11rr a/-manthiir. Two of . a arb'_' BJ k b 1-Mundhir (d. 318/930), a
lB:laagrhitdh adbi. sAchboi laUrssa: m'Aal i (bd.. D28aw2/u8d9 5a)l -Tanadm lMmui l(:d,a.m 2m72a/8d 8b6. o'Ar 2m7r0 /a8l8-B3-ii8h4i)l,l 1-:-1arim (d . 327 / 939 ) o f Rayy aIn dd A. 1 Mu ecac ar- c· oal lected thousands of exe-
Nishapurian scholar who sett e u,_ . commentaries that only partially
(d. 249/863). Tabari received both diverse narrations and books, such
getical reports and composed_Q!:!br H:itim and Ibn al-Mundhir drew
as Ibn Isl.1aq's biography of rhe Prophet, from his first famous teacher, survive.J It is clear that Taban, I n I ••
Mubammad b. l:lunuyd (d. 248/862), in Rayy, Iran.
Tabari collected far more than just exegetical reports from his teach- I Within a ccnt~f}'_of Ta.ban_, s death, IIb n ~a] iNs :d;~i isr;ncdocrdpecdn dseevnet rlaelg oalf stchheoseo lt;i dibens ian1 -hNisa dFiimhr,is t~ aitn,idb
ers. In Beirut. he studied with 'Abbas b. al-Walrd (d. 270/883), from :iv.'2t'dc_J ~~ban l'.1s own chap~::a~1~~\Tchr.m Offprim, 1973), 291--92. The most complete list of
whom he obtained the legal teachings of Awz~ti and the ~r'anic al-Fih~ f, f-Na:11m, (.~. _Reza sc1~ha.l's General introduction to The Historyojaf-Tabari. vol. I, So--134.
reading of Ibn 'Amir. In Egypt, he acquired the legal writings of Tab.ins works IS founC1~1~r's fdiciious translation of the title ofTabarI's Q!!r'inic commcn-
Shafi', from Shafi'l's disciples Muzani (d. 264/877) and al-Rabi' b. 2 tIa hrayv;eJ aodhonp Cteodo Jpoehrn. T/11· Cpoc mmmtar~or, t II t'A<..:,! ' ,a_l l l1 Y .A. btija'fiar Muhammad b. Jarir al-T"barf.
oSuf lcahyem faamn o(du.s 2M70a/l8ik8,4 j)u, rainstd 'Athbed t eAalclahhin bg.s 'Aofb dM aall-i1k:l afrkoamm t(wd.o 2 o14f/ t8h2e9 )s.o Inns 3 vOonl_.l yJ t(hNee c'-\o' mYmorck1~: 1:Oix~fo~rnd~ U~~n~i2v?c,;r1~m111~y: ;Pgr:e~ssr,~ 1l9~.8t:u)n:d:h:iirv, cKs itotifb lrebfnsi raal-/M-~unrd'ah11i, re'sd c. o5.nl'udn acln-Suar'dy.,
Baghdad, he studied with the philologist Tha'lab (d. 29i/904) and he was wluch has ~en_1;1u 2002). There exist several t'ditiom of lbn Abi f:{:itim's complete conunt'ntary,
a good friend of lbn Durayd (d. 32i/933), the latter of whom composed ;1;~!s~ (~:~t:lthc·~~mmt'lllaf)' on Q. i-13 and Q.23-29 is based ~n n_1~1~scripts of this work .. T,l:c
rt·mair~n se~oru have been filled in by using citations of lbn Ab1 f:fau~ s conuncntary prescr.c~
ahna nedlebgoyo kfo Fr irhdiamw.s Hale-1 ,aiklsmoa hbayd 'iAn lih bis. hRoambbe aan caol-pTya boafr it.h e early medical fino uSnudy, uursf.us ,allfy-J J\l1l1i,trh a ul-nmparmedhi,cirt,a b2l ew vo.i.rrki acwiohnics,h 1_1p1 rmovuildu~ps lco ..ns ol)u' rocnne; vseecr sMionc homf ceta cKhO r\,c ~for1ti _idths aatn 1ds
Rifai Expertise in the E.xegi:sis of Jbn Abi tf:itim (327/939) , Der Islam, 82 (2005): 146--68.
X XI
TABAR! Translator's J,,troductiot1
. ins of exegesi.s . a1 t1 10 ugh ' with
from a common pool of early exegetical books and reports ascribed to an Mecca and Kufa are presented as t~~~~1\llah b. 'Abbas (d. 68/68r88),
array of Companions, Successors and the Prophet Muhammad. The mas~ the exception of the Compa'.11onw t. I few Successors- Muslim~ wh~
cer Marnliik-era scholar Ibn l:lajar al-'Asqalani (d. 852/r449) considered the tradition of exegesis begms i ~uhammad and studied wah l~1s
Tabari's commentary to be the superior and unsurpassed work of this were born coo late to see the Prop 1ct ,a.tors such as 'Abd al-Rahman
genre, because he synthesized an unprecedented number of exegetical Companions. Some o f t I1 e ca rl.y cod minm ac lne ss-tha' n-favourable 1i·g IH , .
~repor'ritnsi wc irteha ddientgasi lfeodr gtrhaem emntaitriec a~l arn•aalny.s 1e s and a summary of the variant a1 -SuPderdhI aapns d t'hIek rimmoas.t avrca Idu eap bl1 ec tea spect . o f T.f a bh airsi 'sh eIrnmtreondeuucttiicosn. Tt.o a bh ains-
. I declaranon o
I. Tabari's Introduction ~ r'anic conunenrary is t 1c
One of the most valuable aspects of Tabari's ~r'anic commentary is its writes: Jfthatishowitis,thcnt h ecomme nta.t orswfchlo1aerncumr'oasnt
long Introduction, translated here in its entirety for the first time. After likely to arn.v c act h c crue interprhe tationh o [I] h'a-<v.!e:! the
a brief defense of the premise that every word in the ~r'an is native that is accessible to hum~n~ are t ose; od explained,
to the Arabic language, Tabari devotes tremendous space to explaining clearest proofs of what is mt~rprete an. was sent
the enigmatic Prophetic teaching, "The ~r'an was sent down accord- among the Ip assagesl whose emr teorfp rGetoadn o(n,) . [These
ing to seven abrrif." The meaning of abruf (sing. bar}) has generated a exclusively to the Mbes]seng sound reports (thiibita)
rich debate among Muslim and non-Muslim scholars over the centuries. m• terpretat 1' 0 ns must f eG 1d11 (i) [These reports must
Tabar'i rejects the popular idea that the seven almif are seven languages from the Messenger o o . . umber of
(or dialects) of Arabic that are found in the standard 'Uthmanic edition be transmitted] either by :n ~ver;~::~~Ji:d, reliable
of the ~r'an, arguing on the basis of narrated reports that depict the narrators(al-11aqlal-m11stafiJ), or y h h
Prophet allowing the earliest Arab Muslims to recite the ~r'an using transmitters (naql al-'11diil al-athbat), in ~ases w re t ;
different Arabic words, so long as these words were synonymous with transmission is not by an overwhelm.mg num. er. o
the text that he disseminated among them. This variation of "word- narrators, or by means of an indicator estabhshmg
ings", which is how I have rendered abruf in English, led to conflict their soundness. 12] [The best commentators also] h~ve
among Muslims shortly after the Prophet died, as each group thought the soundest proof for what they explain and ~lanf~,
that it had the correct wording of the ~ r'an. The solution to this crisis among t h o Se Whose knowledge of [interpreta•t iho n] bt s
offered by the caliphs Abu Bakr, cUmar and 'Uthman was to appoint a ac uired from the perspective of language,. elt er y
m:ans of evidence from all types of Arabic_ ~oetry,
committee of Companions to reduce the ~r'an to a single wording in
or from the overwhelmingly attested lquahn.es) of
far coomd etxh e(m Aurjabbaji)c acnodn psornoahnibtaitl tfhoeu rnedcaittiaotino n(r aosfm a)ll owf othrdei ncogsd ethxa. tT dheep acrotend- the Arabs' speech and languages. This perso~ IS It he
best interpreter] so long as his interpretanon ~nd
sequence of this caliphal action, which TabarI defends vigourously, was commentary does not depart from the exegencal
that only one barf of the ~r'an survived and the remaining ones were opinions of che Pious Predecessors \s~laj), ~-mong
irretrievably lost.
the Companions and religious authormes (a m1t11a),
Tabari's Introduction is also of interest for his discussion of the and those who followed chem (khalaj), among the
debates over the propriety of ~r'anic commentary and its origins. He
identifies several famous scholars of Medina, such as Sa'id b. al-Musayy-
ab, who refused to interpret the ~ r'an and disparaged those who did.
1 ibn 1-l;ifu al-Asqaliini, al-'Ujiib fl bayiin al-asbab, ed. Fawwiz Zamarli (Beirut: O:ir lbn }:{azm, The term r,mstaJi4 is ("xplained below, in the chapter containing the translation o( Tabari's
2w0o0r2k),. 57-SuyU1i quotes thi~ pau:.ig(" at the end o( al-Durral-,,umtluir, as an appendix to his 1 Introduction.
Xiii
XII
TABAR! Tra11slator's l,itrod11ctiot1
' . which occur at the level of short ~ow-
Successors and scholars of the community.1 variations of ~r anic readu~gs, -• tii' i irregular readings consist of
The only two forms of evidence Tabart allows for arriving at che els or whether a letter is a ,,,m: ya or ' d from those found in the
correct interpretation of the ~r'an are sound badiths or linguistic evi- the substitution o f cnn·r c Jy differe_, nt wor cs ntary is a valua bl e sour cc
dence in the form of Arabic poetry. Why, then, does Tabari's commentary 'Uthmanic co d ex.d I. n s ho of r tt h• eT. aQbla!rn ,_ as n c, obm otmI' t hose chat MusI i m sc I1 0 Ia rs
contain over 20,000 Companion and Successor reports? The answer to for che variant rea mgs h. rd as irregular.
this question is found in the final sentence above: while these reports do consider regular as well as those t cy rega
not yield proof of the meaning of the ~r'an, they establish limits to
3. Arabic Poetry and Syntax I . rwo of the most sig-
rhe range of acceptable interpretations a Muslim may adopt. This restric- . . )' draws 1eav1 1Y upon I -
tion contrasts sharply with the hermeneutics of Abu lsi)aq al-Tha'labl (d. Tabari's ~r a111c commcntar . ua c· Ma(iinl al-Q!!r'J11 by Va ~ya
i;ificant early books on the Arabic la~gM g_. /-Q!Jr'ii11 by Abu 'Ubayda
427/1035), whom a recent North American scholar has argued is the real
b. Ziyad al-Farra' (d. 207/822-23) an ) a1Aalz aF _, was a famous Ku fan
founder of classical ~r'anic exegesis, and who promotes a very wide I I -(d 209/824-25 - arra
range of possible interpretations of the ~r'an.l Tabari believed that there Macmar b. a -Mut 1anna . I ·Jd .f h 'Abbasid caliph Ma'mOn.
iwt aws aas ctohrrroeucgt hu nad perrosftoaunnddin kgn oofw thleed ~ger o'fa nA,r aanbidc tphoaet ttrhye aonndl ys ywnatayx t,o s oreuancdh gHriasm bmooarki aMn awi' ih11oi atuI- t'<no. !r.!.e rda11 -1th eV : cas 1 1p frBore mn ohotd e dtd bes Yo tihtwe ocaullidphh aavnedb decisnseemasiy-
badirhs and consideration of what the religious experts among the early nated among the s~holarly ehr; ;:- c~bayda was a famous Basran
generations of Muslims thought it meant. for. T. aba.r i to obtai1n af cwohpoys eo bioto. k s suu rvi.v e, m. e luding his comp. ara-
philologist, severa o b I F d and Jarlr. Despite bemg a
2. The Variant ~r'anic Readings rive collection o.f the poe~s . y :h~ ;;:Jir;Jnal Islamic disciplines, like
Tabari typically begins each section of his commentary with a synopsis Kharijid a nHd Jla-cI kmAgb e-x'pUerbtaisyed a1'0s reputan. on as a master o f the Arabic
of the various readings of the verses, should variations exist. He usu- law an . a "I, ·d 1" d . d and his Majiiz al-Q!Jr'ii11 proved indis-
language was w1 c y a nure '
ally refrains from naming individual ~r'an reciters, preferring instead ensable to the genre of ~r'anic commentary:, b
to refer to cities where the major reciters lived: Basra, Kufa, Syria/ p While most of the poetry found in Taban s commentary -can c
Damascus, Medina and Mecca. The widespread concept of the "seven d co these rwo aforementioned books, it is clear that Taban had at
canonical ~r'anic readings" was formulated by Tabari's younger con- ~:c~is osal an extensive corpus of poetry beyond these two s~urces.
temporary lbn Mujahid (d. 324/936), who also lived in Baghdad, and Poetryph as a strictly functional, rather than ~difying, purpose m The
had not yet become canonical during Tabari's lifetime. Tabari wrote Compreliemii,e Exposition. It clarifies grammatical construct~ as w;ll ~s
a comprehensive book on ~r'5nic recitations chat may survive in shades of meaning chat a word may have. In the abse~ce o scan ar . -
manuscript, but never became widely known. He also incorporates ized dictionaries, Tabari relied heavily on pre-Islam1c, early Islam~c
numerous examples of ''irregular readings", especially those ascribed and Urnayyad-era poets for insight into the meaning of unusual Arabic
to the Companion 'Abd Allah b. Mas'ud (d. 32/652-53). Unlike most words and grammatical constructs.
Tabari typically alludes to al-Farra' as "one of the Kufans" and to
1 Tafsir al-Taba,i: )inm• al-ba,,a,, 'a,1 1a'wil JJ• al-Q!fii,,, ed. 'Abd Alli.Ii al-Turki and Markaz Abii ~Ubayda as "one of the Basrans". A second Basran who appears occa-
al-Dul:,iith wa'I-Oir5s;it al-Ar.ibiyya wa'l-lslarniyya bi-Dir Hajar, 24 vols. (Cairo: Haj:ir, sionally in The Comprelre11si11e Exposition is Sa'id b. Mas'ada al-Akhfash
a2l0•0M1)a, .1in: 8f8, ; 19T5a7fs-ir1 9a<>l-9'f)l, lb1a :r9i3, . eTdh. hM paal)sm~aigide oSchcaukrisr aa nfrdw A pl.augneasd l:iS.thear kiinr , T1a6b avroi'sk Jm(Craoidrou:c rDioanr (d. 210/szs-26), and it is clear chat Tabar"i incorporated passages from
from the p.uugr Jane McAuliffc discm~es in her d1ap1er, "~r'foic Hermeneutics: The:
eV<lie~w A,n odrf~ a~l-· TRa.?bp.nmi a n(Od xlbfon rdK:: iCthliarr"e, nAdpopnr,o a1d918tJ8 )1,0 41h~t 2Hi.1 1oTrhy ee fp rahsts afogtet tpshreer acriitoe,is e(f1 t: h7e4 Qo!tfr' at1h1e, 1 tWheh elent tAerrsa bbiac' ,i st aw', rrihuae',n mwiint haonudt ydioi' tas,r ew fhreicqhu ewnatls yc uinsdtoismtianrgyu iins htahbel ee aorrlyrh coegnrtauprhieics aollfy .I sTlahmis,
~pmlu1k-iPr reodpml1oeunc) nre puonrptoi rmta nILt, but it does nm explain whr Tabari's comnu·ncary has so many feature of the Ar:ibic script may have contributed to rhe emergence of variant readings that
2 See Walid ~alrh. Tht h,ma111.m of tht Clau1caf Tafsir Tradition (Boston: Brill, 2004). generally hJ.d a minimal impact on the meaning of the tcxr.
xv
XIV
TABAR! Translator's lntrod11cti011
al-Akhfash's Ma'ii11i al-Q!r'ii11 into his commentary as well. Al-Akhfash, Table I: Early Collections and Collectors of ~r';iinic Commentary
who came to Basra from Balkh, Afghanistan, was a student of the famous Collector Tabari's Source No. of Reference
grammarians Khalll b. Al_,mad and Sibawayh, and allegedly tutored the Authority Reports' (Horst 1953)
sons of the prominent Kufan grammarian Kisa'I.
Although Tabari relies heavily upon al-Farra' and Abu 'Ubayda ~tadab. Sa'id b. Bishr b. Mu'adh J,o6o Jrnad 14
for their lexical and grammatical expertise, he is also highly critical of Di':ima Ahi'ArDba al-'Acpdi
some of their positions, especially those of the latter. For example, in Jim Zayd lhn Wahb aYl-riAn'ulas h. 'Abd 1,800 1s,,ad 20
the Introduction to his commentary, he rejects at length Abu cUbayda's
chlealipmj othf aGt "oIdn (tbhi'el lNaha)"m. e of God (bi's111i'l/a/,)" is equivalent to "with [the Ibn 'Abbas h'A. !Siya'yda SMludl .iaalm-'Amwadfi b. 1,56o [lsniid 3jl
al-Awfi
4. Companion and Successor Opinions Muj,hid b. Jbn Abi Muhammad b. 1,700 Jrnad 7a
Jahr Najil_1 'Am~ al-Uiihili
In an unpublished study of 1,327 reports among the passages translated in
these volumes, I found that only 9 per cent of them consisted of badiths.' Mujahid b. lbn Abi Al-f:-1:irith b. Abi 1,000 !s11iid 16
Nearly one in five reports consisted of the opinion of Ibn <Abbas, the Jahr Naji~ Us:ima
Companion and cousin of the Prophet; and one-third of them were the Ibn 'Abbas T'Aallil,ba. Abi 'aAl-lTi abm. Dimiiwi Gd 970 ls11ad,
opinions of either the Basran Successor Qe,cada b. Dicama (d. 117/735) or the
Meccan Successor Mujahid b. Jabr (d. between 102 and w8/720-27). Other Mujihid b. Ibn Abi al-Murhanni b. 680 lsniidS
early religious authorities whose opinions TabarI cites frequently in his com- Jahr Naji~ Ibrahim al-Amuli
mentary include the post-Successor Medinan scholar 'Abd al-Rabman b. AI-I;>al,1,,k 'Uhayd h. Anonymousl 670 ls11iid 19
Zayd (d. 182f798); the Kufan Successor al-I;>al:,l:,ak b. Muzal_lim (d. between b. Muzal.1im Sulaymin
(md.2 1a1n0d/ 712086)./ 7A20lc-o-2g5e)t;h aenr,d Tthabe afrai mcoituess Bthaser aonp Sinuicocness soofr a8l6- Heaarslayn aMl-uBsali~mri Ibn 'Abbas T'AaIlI~ha. Ahi aIbl-rMahuimth aanl-nAim b.u li j6o Is11ad 2
authorities in the passages of his commentary included here. This refers to the number of reports in the entire Comprthtnsive Expasiticm, not just
The domjnance of the exegetical opinions of Ibn cAbbas, Qi!t3da t1h e passages translated in these volumes. . ,
and Mujahid makes sense after a closer examination of his sources. In This isnad was corrected by Claude Gilliot, who idennfied Mubammad b. Sad as a
2
his groundbreaking 1953 article, Heribert Horst published an analy- descendent of'Ariyya al-'Awfi, rather than the scholar who composed the book Kitiib
sis of the isnads of 35,400 reports in TabarI's commentary.i He found af-tabaqiit of-kahir; Gilliot, Exigese, 25. _ , .
th:it 15,700 of them came from a mere 21 i.sniids, and then proceeded to oJ pAincicoonrsd winags 'tAob Adacnh abr.i ,M Tuahbaamri'ms saodu arlc-eM faorr. vtahzisi (dc.o 2ll9e3c/t(i)o0n6 )o;,Mf aul;;aOma shhbuay~u ks he axle-Tgacth1~cr~t.l
identify Tabari's most frequently occurring isniids. The most plausible 771 _ 'Abdan was a well-respected mufti of Merv, so Tabari s reason for suppressing
explanation for this finding was that TabarI was using books (or private his name is puzzling, unless he did so because he copied this book without having it
notebooks) that recorded a single religious authority's opinions on a read to him by 'Abdin {or another teacher).
significant number of ~r'anic verses, as can be seen from Table 1. The men who, according to the face value of the isniid evidence,
I Scou C. Lucu, "Dadplin:.uy Speci;iliz:ation ;imong Comp;iniom ;ind Successors: Evidence collected the opinions of ibn 'Abbas, Mujahid, ~tiida, al-I;>al:,J:,ak and
frorn thC' ,Mu1om1afo ( lbn Abi Sh:ayb:a 2nd al-T2hari's ~r·an Cornment;iry", p2per presented lbn Zayd all lived during the rnid-Umayyad and early-'Abbiisid periods,
:wai oihrde, .2 n2i1n"e m oeuC1 'toin( g1 co11( uthmC' eA1,m TC2'br:iac;riin ( jOUOritrc1s1 1saolm Soeocnieety o, cChehri cthag:aon. th11e- P14r oMph;ierct hM 2u0b112. nIunn .o1tdh ienr and were known as prominent students of these religious authorities.
the l.<nDJ-mpporlC'd reporu 111 hh ~r'anic comment;ir)'. However, there is significant evidence that they did not always hear the
i 1-lcnben Horn, ~zur OberlirfC'rung im Korankomrnen12r 2f-T2haris". Uitschriji dtr Dtutschrn teachings directly from the mouths of their exegetical authorities. Ibn
Morg<-nltinduchrn Gts<flstlioft. 103 (1951): l9()-Jo7.
xv, XVII
TABARI Translator's fntroductiot1
wAbhiil Ne a'jAi!_l,i abl.l eAgebid lTya lcl_o,all, ecwtehdo Mseuttjlaehdi din's tHafosimr fsr,o pmr oQbia_bsilmy cbo. lAlebcit eBda zIzban, d) (VHaozirds tb i.s uZiiudr a14y/ ' Kf-os\a Ci S-1d t1 iibJ • iAv) bl 'Ar-uba f-J-~Dtaahdhaa k
'Abbas' rafsir from Muj5.hid. 1 The Kufan <A~iyya b. Sa<d al-Awfi, a stu- c) Ahli Mucadh f-<Ubayd b. Su layman i-a . • ..
dent of lbn 'Abbas, was associated with pro-<A lid sentiments, and some (Horst isntid 19/ Ko~ isniid xxx1) S dd-
of his descendants who narrated this tafsir were considered unreliable f) 'Amr b. Hammad i-~sb_af b. Na$r f- u I
narrators. 1 On the other hand, the Basran scholar Sa<Id 6. Ab! <A.rG6a (Horst isniid 16/ Ko~ 15nad vu) I incorporated
was a recognized student of ~tada, and <ubayd 6. Sulayman, a Kufan Ibn al-Mun dht.r , T. ab a n-· s other c-ont' empor.a triyca, l ao soin ions narrate d
who settled in Merv, was a well-known student of al-Oabbak.3 Finally, Sacid b. AbI 'ArGb~·s colle~tionfr:~,~~~aa;-~:;:aq's co~nmentary from
the Egyptian 'Abd Allah b. Wahb, who collected Ibn Zayd's opinions by Yazid b. Zuray ' selecttons ,_ Unlike Tabar! Ibn al-Mun-
during his studies with Malik in Medina, passed them to YOnus b. 'Abd Ma'rnar and Abu 'Ubayda's Majiiz al-Qr;;•~ "yya b ·o,;_,u•d (d. 286/899)
al-Nia, who was TabarI's immediate teacher. dhir drew from the early conuncnt.~r~ o a_ an b. A·b _ 'Ubayd al-~sim
Horst also discerned fragments of earl.ier ~r'Jnic commentaries, of Nishapur and the book of ~r ante readmgs y u
which cited multiple religious authorities, embedded in TabarI's com- b. Sallam (d. 224/838).
mentary. Tabar! acquired 1,080 reports of the commentary of Ma'mar b. 5 What Was Left Out of TabarI's Commentary? . ,_ .
Rashid (d. between 152 and 158/769-75) from Mul_,ammad b. 'Abd al-A'la . . . . . . h re are several features of classical G.!:!r arnc
al-San(anI in Basra, along with another 630 reports of it from al-f::lasan Despite 1ts im~osmg s1z;;e~tef rom The Comprehensive Exposition. Tabar!
b. Yal.1ya in Baghdad.• He obtained Ibn Jurayj's (d. 150/767) commentary commentary t tat are a M d' meaning wheth-
1 1 1
on s1"iras 1-29 from al-~sim b. al-Hasan who, according to Gilliot, was ::: ;~i:;:~ ::•:;t:s/1:c~:i;:ati:n~:~~2 CE. H; refrains
the Baghdadi theologian who died in 272/885.5 Finally, Tabari received from rclatin reports about the special qualities or men ts o. rec1tm_g
a8l6-oB argehpdoardts! aonfd SanuodtdhIe'sr c5o30m rmepenotratsr yf rofmro mhi s Munukhnaomwmna dte abc.h earl -MHGussaa ybn. acel-r,tmaiz.n ,i Ds1 -,roasf,g sc pa eIIc ei dfi Jcra, .ds Ua- 'r·1a[ s. 1 11a nAdr avbeicr.s eOs cacraes ionnost fcoor ntsh1.e ~ treenvte Ily a 11~oronv 1(a· ds bea db '
Harlin al-HamdanI.6
althou h Tabar! does Jink many ~r'anic passages with the ~10grap_hy
geticTaal braerpio wrtass. nJbont tAhbe! o Jn:IlJyt ismch, ohliasr j uton iuosre cthoenstee meaprolyra croyl lienc tRioanysy o, fm eaxdee- o f t I1 e gp ro·p h e t Muh· amma• d · Rarely does hed /c i1the the exegettcahlo owpemre-
ions of any scholars who lived during the 3r 9 ce~tury _o~ w . _
use of the following identical collections as TabarI in his commentary:7 his contemporaries. The master jurists of t~e early' <~bbas1d penod
a) Mu{5wiya b. salil_1 f-CAii b. Abi TaliJa f-Ibn 'Abbas Abu Hanifa, Awza'i, Sufyan al-Thawri, Mahk, Shafi 1, I~n I:Ianbal, Ibn
(Horst isniids 1. 2/ Koc;: iSt1iid 1) RJha~vayh and Abu Thawr-arc absent f~~m Tabari s commen_car.y
b) Al-Hasan b. 'Ariyya b. Sa'd <-'Atiyya b. Sa'd <-Ibn 'Abbas too, even though his book Ikhrilaf al-f11qaha shows thar he was nm-
(Horst iSt1iid 3/ Ko\ isntid x)
c) Warqa' <-Ibn Abi Najil., <-Mujahid marely familiar with their legal opinions. Edifyi~g poc~ry, anecdo~es
(Horst isntid 7bl Koc;: isniid 111) and stories are generally absent, although Taban does mclude a sig-
nificant amount of Judea-Christian lore in passages that are -~ot part
1 lbn Hajar. Ji:ihdhib al-1ahdh;b J;r ij"J/ al-badith. ed. Ali Mu'awwa~ and 'Adil 'Abd al-MawjUd. 7 of this translation. Unlike many classical exegetes, such as Abu 1-Layth
voh. {Beirut: D.ir al-Kuiub al-llmiy)'a. 2004), 3 :684 (lbn Abi Najil.1); 4 :614 ('Ali b. Abi Tal~a). al-SamarqandI, Tha'labI or Baghawi, Tabar! studiously avoids quoting
2 Ibn 1-laJu. Tahdhibal-ralidhib. 4:510. rhe early Q,tr'anic commentary of Muqatil b. Su layman (d. 15of767) and
4J lHbon mH,a j1_urn., UT a1.hz dahnidb aiJl-,itaadh d1h3i.b 3 . 0.z1 :. 670 (Sa'id); 4:364 (Ubayd). makes minimal reference to the early commentary of MulJammad b.
al-Sa'ib al-Kalb, (d. 146f763), presumably because he did not have confi-
5 Gilhot, .27. This is Hom's m,ads 4-6. Athari 1s of the oprnion rhat [his al-~sim b. al-Hasan
is on, of Tabiri') .. unknown" 1,achen; 1\1ujam .shuyiikh al-Tabari, 407. · dence in their opinions and narrations. In short, Tabar! stays true to the
6 Horn. 1.miids 15 and 16, 30.z. title of his commentary: his objective is to clarify the correct meanings
7 K~. Mb,itiJs 311<l Rijiil ExpettiSt" Ill tl1, Ext'gesis of 1h11 Abi }:l.icirn". 151-55.
XVIII XIX
•
TABAR! Translator's Introduction
of the ~r'an, rather than explore all of its possible interpretations or
1. The Translated Passages d. passages of Tabari's
the auxiliary issues beyond the meaning of its verses. . h. ty-two iscrect d
This publication conrams t tr . The selection of siiras an vers~s
6. InRuence of The Comprehensive Exposition ~r'anic commentary in tran~la~1on. I titute for Islamic Thought, m
Tabari's commentary had a profound inRuence on the genre of ~r'anic was made by the Ro_ral Aal a - a{t c:1~1111issioncd this project. Some
commentary, the full extent of which remains to be dctcrm..incd. The oldest Amman, Jordan, which genc~?ut y I Introduction to his commcn-
surviving manuscript of a significant part of The Compreltemive Exposition of rhc passages. such as Tabart s. cngt .1y "disconnected letters" at rhe
daces back to the 411'/ioth century and is preserved in Fez, Morocco, which tary and his explanation ~f the my~t~:;;~esst primarily for scholarly re.a-
is 2,800 miles from Tabari's home in Baghdad. Exegetes such as Tha'Iabi bcginning of numerous sums, ar~-~ic assa es arc associated with spccta~
in Nishapur, Mawardi in Baghdad, Ibn cA~iyya in Granada, Jbn Kath.Ir in sons. However, most ofrhe ~r-~., :. I i!enrioned previously, Taban
blessings or qualities, called fat/a'. s. h e ofjadii'il al-Q!r'iin,
atDanardym , daeissvcceuansr dat nhidtos u Sgbuhuy lOkt~hyie yiisn n fiCeidlats .i frrIone e m thatode edl imesxa3tgmerneis eiS vwhe itutih ste r haoidsf i tTpieoarbnsa,o rnMi'asl u cbooapmminmmioeannds- oewvfhi rnihccche seh anarsol i edis nettc ebpr oerosotk osI.t l sli nIm.u .Is s tlchaomem ,H ·nt aI1 1 Jee ,-ntKJ tI·a .Irl rayr_a b dIfla.l1 d.tt .t i oi'enil gaac ln-ndQr ! wJra'isi nt hb.e y rAidbeu f( oUr b oaynd e
b. al-1:Jasan al-Tusi, who lived most of his professional life in Baghdad,
aml-aTdibey iiu1s1e f lo tfa jsTflrt ea lC-Qom!prr'ieinhe. nTsih11ee hEuxpmoasintiiosnt Yin3 qhiiisr iamJ-p1o:Jratmanawt ic mwansm eefnfutsairvye, atiles- ~aTchscioem rf dobil.nl ogSw atloilna bmga .dp1ia tshssa agnesd aeraer layss roecli.i agtieo du sw aiuthth sopne.tc ti.e asl ..bi . lessings or quali-
in his praise of this work in his famous biographical dictionary, Mu'jam
Surat al-Fatiba (The Opening, ,)
dale-umdaanbdii 1f• oHr Towabeavrei'rs, cloikme msoe mntaanryy deiasrsliyp abtoedo kosv oerf ttihmee l stloa smuicch t ar addeigtiroene ,t hthaet In several sound /,adiths, the Prop h et (m a Gofd bhl es,-s, .,h. i•m- a" ndn dg rdaenctl ahriemd
. d h. - he "greatest s11ra o t e "-<.!:!r an a
no complete manuscript existed in the twentieth century. According to peace) describe t 15 sr1ra asr . . .d " k" I J-,/, he allegedly
Fuat Sezgin, about one hundred volumes of The Comprehe,JSive Exposition rhat prayer without irsreciration ts mvah _J In a ~ea ea~~ t~e,Throne: the
survive in manuscripts in libraries around the world. 1 Fortunately, a group ·d "Four [siirasJ were sent down from treasure en
~'o;her of the Book [Surat al-Fatiba], the Verse of the Throne (Q.2:255),
of Muslim scholars in Egypt laboured to publish a complete edition of this
the final verses of Surat al-Baqara (The Cow, 2) and Surat al-Kawthar
book in 30 volumes between the years 1905 and 1912. Several improved
editions of Tabari's commentary have appeared subsequently, which will (Abundance, 108)."•
be discussed below, to the point that The Comprehensive Exposition is more The Verse of the Throne (Q.2 :255)
easily accessible today than at any time in history. According to Tirmidhl, the Prophet (may God bless him and grant him
peace) said, "Whoever recites rhe first three verses ~f [S~ra 40] and the
Ill. NOTES REGARDING THIS TRANSLATION Verse of the Throne when he wakes up in the mormng will be pr.otect~d
To my knowledge, this publication contains the first effort ro translate into by them until the evening. And whoever recites rhen1 in the evemng will
English a significant portion of Tabari's ~r'anic commentary without
abri.dgemenrs. This publication consists of thirty-two passages which are 1 Sec Abo 'Ubayd al-Qisim b. Sallam, Kitiib Fadii'i/ al-Qlr'ii,r, ed. Marwin al-'Atiyya et al.
eInq ut~i1vca lreenmt ation ianpgp rpoaxgeims oatfe lthyi s8 ipnetrro cdeunctt ioofn ,T Jh es hCalolm epxrpelhaeimn ivthe eE rxaptoisointiaolne. 2 (RDeaamdaesrcs uisn:t eDreirs tIebdn iKn aathdidri,t i2o0n0a0l) . information regardm. g the fada_ ,,.I of the ~r,a_ n should
behind the selection of the translated passages, rhe print editions of The consult af-Kitiib al-jiimi' li-fadii'il al-Qlr'a,, al-karim. produced by the Royal Aal al-Bayt
Ctoor,i_1a1pl rceohnemveiinJet iEoxnpso. sition upon which I based this translation, and my edi- FInasdtaitcul_teA flo~rr :Iisnla.mpdicf . Thought. This book is available onlinc: http://altafsir.com/Books/
3 Kitiib al-Ja,r1i' li-fada'il al-Q.!r'ii.11 al-karim. 32-33. The sources for these badiths include the
Sa~ihs of Bukhiri and Muslim.
• Fu~t Xzgin. GrS<hidut dts ArabiJchen Sd1rifi1urns (Uidcn: E.J. Brill, 1967), ':327-28. 4 Kitab al-jiimi', 36. This badith is found in Tabarini's al-M11)'am al-kabir.
L _
xx XX!