20. IBN JARĪR AL-ȚABARĪ
There
are many great classical commentators of the Qur’ān which become the main
sources of contemporary scholars in further understanding the meanings of the Qur’ān.
One of them was Abū Ja‘far Muḥammad Ibn Jarīr al-Țabarī, the native of
Tabaristan (224- 310/839-923). He is considered by Muslim scholars “the father
of the science of tafsīr”. He was
born in Amol, Tabaristan, modern Mazandaran, about 20 km south of the Caspian
Sea in Iran. Although he was a Persian, all his works was written in Arabic. He
wrote on many subjects, such as poetry, grammar, ethics, mathematics, medicine
history in commentary of the Qur’ān. His best known works are Jāmi‘ al Bayān
fī Tafsīr al-Qur’ān (The Comprehensive Exposition of the Interpretation of
the Verses of the Qur’ān), also known as Tafsīfr al-Țabarī, and Tārīkh al-Rusul wa al-Mulūk (History of the Prophets and Kings), often referred
to Tārīkh al-Ṭabarī. As he wrote
extensively history which had not been written like it he was also called “the
Father of History.”
Al-Ṭabarī started learning at his early age. At seven
he memorised the Qur’ān, at eight he started leading the prayer, at nine he
started studying the Ḥadīth (Prophetic traditions), and at twelve he
left home to pursue his study. At Rayy (Raghes) he stayed about five years
where he studies the Hanafi school, the sīrah (biography of the Prophet)
by Ibn Isḥāq, and pre-Islamic history. Then he travelled to Baghdad and studied under Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal
for a short period as he died later, and he found out that he did not learn
much from him as he considered him just a recorder of ḥadīth rather than
a jurist (faqīh). Then he went to Basrah, Kufah, and Wasit, where he
studied the various madhhabs (schools of jurisprudence): Mālikī,
Shāfi‘ī, and Ẓāhirī under its founder Dāwūd al-Ẓāhirī. He followed the Shāfi‘ī
school for some times, then he established his own school.
On his return to Baghdad, the vizier at that time
‘Ubaydullāh Khāqān offered him a tutoring position for ten dinars a month. It
was said that he taught so well that he was offered a tray of dinars and
dirhams, but he declined. Then in his late twenties he went to Syria,
Palestine, and Egypt. In Beirut he studied the Syrian school’s variant readings
of the Qur’ān as well as the legal views of al-Awzā‘ī.
Like
great scholars before and after him he suffered from some kinds of allegations,
and the worst of it of being a Rāfiḍī[1]
and a Shī‘ī[2].
This allegation became spread among scholars, among them was Ibn Ḥajar who
said of him: “He is reliable, honest, and has slight bias [to the Shi‘ah] and tolerated
friendship [with them] "(ثقة صادق فيه تشيع يسير وموالاة لا تضر). But
al-Țabarī had written a book praising Abū Bakr and ‘Umar entitledفَضَائلُ أَبِي
بَكْر وَعُمَرُ (“The Virtues of Abū Bakr and ‘Umar”), whereas
the Shī‘ah denounced both of them. He wrote this book when he found out that
there was a person in his hometown Amol who cursed these two prominent
companions of the Prophet. He mentioned their merits and repudiated the
allegation against them. Because of this, the wali (ruler) of the town
summoned him, and he fled to Baghdad where he passed away before completing the
book.
The people of Iraq in general and of Baghdad in
particular where al-Ṭabarī lived were followers of the Ḥanbalī school. When he
said that Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal was a compiler of traditions and not a proper jurist
because he based his views on traditions without using qiyās (analogy)
people became angry with him. His followers would often throw stones at his
house. When the Baghdad chief of police tried to organize a debate between him
and the Ḥanbalīs to settle their differences he accepted it, but they did not
show up. Instead, they came later to pelt his house with stones again.
When al-Ṭabarī died in Baghdad on Sunday evening
26 Shawwāl 310/16 February 923) reaching the age of 85 years he was buried
secretly by the ‘Abbasi authority for fear of mob violence by the Ḥanbalīs. The historian Yāqūt al-Ḥamawī
(d. 626/1229) also said that because of this allegation of being a Rāfiḍī when
he died he was buried at night for fear of the people. According to the Qur’ān
commentator Ibn Kathīr he was buried in his house because some Ḥanbali
followers did not want him to be buried in the day time, and they alleged him
to be a Rāfiḍī following the allegation of their teacher Muhammad ibn
Dāwūd al-Ẓāhirī. Ibn Kathīr rejected the allegation saying that al-Țabarī was
one of the Muslim scholars who knew and practised the Qur’ān and the Sunnah of
the Prophet.
The most acceptable view was that of the historians al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī and Ibn ‘Asākir who said: “The number of people who gathered together at his funeral procession was uncountable except by Allah, and people prayer funeral prayer at his grave several months days and nights. He was buried the next day on the early morning of Monday in his house at Ya‘qūb Public Square in Baghdad.
The most acceptable view was that of the historians al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī and Ibn ‘Asākir who said: “The number of people who gathered together at his funeral procession was uncountable except by Allah, and people prayer funeral prayer at his grave several months days and nights. He was buried the next day on the early morning of Monday in his house at Ya‘qūb Public Square in Baghdad.
Al-Țabarī was said that he wrote forty pages
every day for forty years. Many of his
works were lost, but his Jāmi‘, better known as Tafsīr al-Ṭabarī, has
survived. He was “a man of encyclopaedic learning who absorbed the whole mass
of tradition in his time”. His Tafsīr consists of thirty volumes
containing collections of ḥadīths with their full isnād (chains
of transmitters) dealing with the commentary on the Qur’ān. He deals with whole
chapters, although not whole verses, of the Qur’ān. He used to give his view
after mentioning many different views, and said “the right view for me in this
matter is ….” (…والصواب
من القول في ذلك عندي أن يقال). Later commentators,
such as al Zamakhsharī (d. 538/1143), Ibn ‘Aṭiyyah
(d. 542/1147 or 546/1151), Ibn Kathīr (d. 774/1373) and al Suyūṭī (d. 991/1505) followed al-Ṭabarī in examining and
explaining the whole Qur’ān in their tafsīr works.
Al-Ṭabarī’s
Tafsīr was highly recommended by Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728/1328) who stated
that it was one of the best, and the worthiest of its kind. Abū Bakr al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī called it “a book which has never been
written like it,” whereas the jurist Abū Ḥāmid Aḥmad al-Isfarāyīnī said, “If a man
travels to China to get it would not be much.” Scholars in his time praised him
so much that he was said to be a reliable scholar, one of the great leaders of
the Sunnīs whose view was accepted, whom people referred to for his deep knowledge and sound method. The
writing of his Tafsīr was completed within seven years starting from 283
AH till 290 AH in Baghdad.
Al-Ṭabarī in his Tafsīr included
many Jewish legends (إسْرَائِلِيَّات) taken from
Jewish converts, such as Ka ‘b al-Aḥbār, Wahb ibn Munabbih, ‘Abd Allāh ibn
Sallām, ‘Abd al-Malik ibn Jurayj, and others so that it reached almost 2,500
legends, but he mentioned their isnād (chains of transmitters), and he
rarely mentioned the sound and the weak. He never took from suspected people
like Muqātīl and al-Kalbī.
Al-Ṭabarī’s Tafsīr was printed in 30 volumes by
al-Amīriyyah Printing Press at Būlāq, Cairo in 1321/1903, then it was printed
and copied many times until it was verified by Aḥmad Muḥammad Shākir, and about
half of it was published in 16 volumes
at Dār al-Ma‘ārif in Egypt in 1374/1955. In 1420/200 it was verified by Aḥmad
Muḥammad Shākir again, and was printed again, and was published for the first
time by Mu’assah al-Risālah in 24 volumes. Nowadays, with the advance of
technology in this 21th Century, we are able to read this book
through the internet. If you open al-Maktabah al-Shāmilah (المكتبة
الشاملة), literally means “the Comprehensive Library”, by using WinRAR you will find thousands of classical
books in various topics in Arabic. One of my main sources in this library is
this Tafsīr of al-Ṭabarī.
Al-Ṭabarī
was an ascetic person. When the vizier al-‘Abbās ibn al-Ḥasan asked him to
write a book on Islamic law for him, he wrote the summary of his book Laṭīf
al-Qawl and presented it to him. The vizier was so happy, that he sent him
one thousand dinars as present, but he rejected it. When he was told that he
should take it and give it away as charity to whom he liked, he said that they
knew more those who deserved it.
Like other scholars
before and after him, al-Țabarī also wrote poetry. Among his poetry is as
follows:
إِذَا أَعْسَرْتُ لَمْ يَعْلَمْ رَفِيْقِي * وَأَسْتَغْنِي
فَيَسْتَغْنِي صَدِيْقِي
حَيَائِي حَافِظٌ لِي مَاءَ وَجْهِي * وَرِفْقِي فِي مُطَالَبَتِي رَفِيْقِي
وَلَوْ أَنِّي سَمَحْتُ بِمَاءِ وَجْهِي * لكُنْتُ
إِلَى العُلَى سَهْلَ الطَّرِيْقِ
(البحر الوافر: مفاعلتن مفاعلتن فعولن)
When
I am in trouble my companion does not know it,
and
[when] I am in no need [of help], then my friend is also in no need [of help].
My
shamefulness protects my self-respect,
and my tenderness [protects me] from asking
[favour from] my companion.
And
if I let myself sacrifice my honour,
I
would have easily attained glory.
This poem indicates al-Ṭabarī’s
honesty, his humbleness, his self-confidence, his trust in Allah, his
contentment, his shamefulness, and his self-respect which are among good
qualities of pious Muslims like him. May Allah reward him for his dedication to
Islam, āmīn! (CIVIC, 4 December,
2015)
المصادر:
المكتبة الشاملة
تفسير الطبري
(ت. 310 هـ(
http://www.alukah.net/culture/0/
http://www.alukah.net/web/alshibl/0/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaidiyyah
https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/ إسماعيلية
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafida
[1]The term Rāfiḍī (رافضي) means “the one who rejects”; Rāfiḍah
(رَافضة)
is its collective plural, and its multiple plural is Rawāfiḍ
(روافض)
,
both meaning “those who reject.” The terms are referred by
Snunnī Muslims to the Shī‘īs who reject legitimacy of the succession of Abū Bakr, ‘Umar
and ‘Uthmān as Muslim leaders after Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. Originally
the Rafiḍah were followers of the Shī‘ah in
Kufah and were with Zayd ibn ‘Ali ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn ‘Ali against the
Umayyad caliph Hisham ibn ‘Abd al-Malik (ruling through 724-743 CE). When Zayd
ibn ‘Ali refused to condemn the three earlier caliphs, namely, Abu Bakr, ‘Umar,
and ‘Uthmān, arguing that they had been accepted by ‘Ali himself, they rejected
and deserted him. However, the term is also applied to the Twelver Shī‘ah who
reject (some of them even openly condemn) the three earlier caliphs, as
legitimate leaders of the Muslims.
[2] The term شِيْعَة (Shī‘ah) is an abbreviation of شيْعةُ عَلِي, (Shīʻatu ʻAlī), “followers of ‘Ali” who believe that
the proper succession of the Prophet was his son-in-law and cousin ‘Ali,
instead of his father-in-law Abū Bakr. They believe that Ali have been divinely
appointed as the successor of the Prophet, as the first Imam, succeeded by
certain individuals among his descendants (ahl al-bayt, “the People of
the House”) who possessed infallibility and other divinely-ordained traits. Between
10% and 13% of Muslims are followers of Shi’ah, most of them live in Iraq,
Iran, India and Pakistan, and 85% of them are Twever Shi’ah. The Zaydī Shī’ah, also
called al-Zaydiyyah (الزَّيْدِيَّة) named after Zayd ibn ‘Ali, the grand-son of Ḥusayn ibn ‘Ali, constitute
roughly 0.5% of the world's Muslim population. Most of them live in Yemen, but
they make up about 35-40% of its Muslim population. They do not believe in the
infallibility of Imāms after Husayn and that the Imāmate must pass from father
to son. Instead, they believe that it can be held by any descendant from either
Hasan ibn ʻAlī or Husayn ibn ʻAlī. The third main group of the Shī‘ah is the
Ismā‘īliyyah, named after Ismā‘īl son of Ja ‘far al-Ṣādiq (the sixth Imam), also
called the Bāṭiniyyah for their belief in the existence of inner
interpretation of the Qur’an. The term bāṭin means “inner, hidden, secret” which is the opposite of ẓāhir which
means “obvious, clear, external.” Most of them live in India, Pakistan,
Afghanistan and Syria.
