Tafsir: Difference between revisions

Shiite scholars have had a significant presence in developing the field of tafsir and authoring Quranic commentaries. Ibn Abbas, Ibn Mas’ud, Jabir b. Abd Allah Ansari, Ubayy b. Ka’b, and Maytham al-Tammar were among the early personalities with Shiite leanings who engaged in interpreting the Quran or producing Quranic commentaries.  

In the age of the Followers (tabi’un), many Shiite figures, starting with Sa’id b. Jubayr, engaged in tafsir. According to Qatada, Sa’id was the most knowledgeable of the Followers with regard to tafsir. Mujahid b. Jabr, a disciple of Ibn Abbas, was the next commentator after Sa’id who had Shiite leanings. Fadl b. Maymun reports that Mujahid said, “I presented the Quran to Ibn Abbas three times. I read it verse by verse and asked him about each verse’s occasion of revelation and tafsir.” Most Sunnis narrate their exegetical hadiths from Mujahid.  

Other disciples of Ibn Abbas who had Shiite inclinations included Abu Salim Mizan al-Basri and Abu Abd Allah al-Yamani Tawus b. Kaysan, who was also a disciple of Imam al-Sajjad (a). Atiyya b. Sa’id al-Kufi also belongs to this group of the Followers; he was a disciple of Imam al-Baqir (a) and composed a Quranic commentary in five volumes entitled Tafsir Atiyya al-Kufi. Other Shiite commentators in this period include Yahya b. Ya’mur (a disciple of Abu l-Aswad al-Du’ali), Jabir b. Yazid al-Ju’fi (a disciple of Imam al-Baqir), and Isma’il b. Abd al-Rahman al-Kufi known as Suddi al-Kabir (“the Great Suddi,” who was a disciple of Imam al-Sajjad, Imam al-Baqir, and Imam al-Sadiq and who passed away in 127 AH).  

In the generation after the Followers, an even greater number of Shiites engaged in tafsir and produce exegetical works.