teenth without calling to mind the face of Ibn ʿAbbās.
Ibrāhīm ibn al-Ḥakam ibn Abān narrated from his father, from ʿIkrimah, who said:
“Whenever Ibn ʿAbbās walked down a street, the women standing on the rooftops would say, ‘Was it the scent of musk that passed, or was it Ibn ʿAbbās?’”
Al-Zubayr related: Sāʾidah ibn ʿUbayd Allāh al-Muzanī told me, from Dāwūd ibn ʿAṭāʾ, from Zayd ibn Aslam, from Ibn ʿUmar:
“That ʿUmar summoned Ibn ʿAbbās, brought him close, and would say, ‘I saw the Messenger of Allah ﷺ call you one day, wipe your head, put his saliva in your mouth, and say, “O Allah, grant him deep understanding of the religion and teach him the interpretation.” (1)’”
Dāwūd was a Medinan transmitter and is weak.
Hammād ibn Salamah and others narrated from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUthmān ibn Khuthaym, from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, from ʿAbd Allāh, who said:
“I spent the night in the house of my aunt Maymūnah and placed water for the Prophet ﷺ to bathe with. He asked, ‘Who put this here?’ They replied, ‘ʿAbd Allāh.’ He then said, ‘O Allah, teach him the interpretation and grant him deep understanding of the religion.’ (2)"
(1) Reported by al-Baladhuri, Ansab al-ashraf, 3/37.
(2) The chain of transmission is sound. The hadith appears in the Musnad, 1/266, 314, 328, 335; in al-Tabarani, no. 10587; in Tarikh al-Fasawi, 1/494; Ibn Saʿd, 2/365; and al-Baladhuri, 3/28. Al-Hakim declared it authentic (3/534) and al-Dhahabi agreed.
Ibn Abbas was one of the Companions most versed in Qurʾanic exegesis. Yaʿqub b. Sufyan relates in his Tarikh (1/495) with a sound chain that Ibn Masʿud said: “Had Ibn Abbas reached our age, not one in ten of us would have equalled him,” and he also said, “Ibn Abbas is indeed an excellent interpreter of the Quran.” Ibn Saʿd transmits this additional statement in al-Tabaqat (2/366) through another isnad from Ibn Masʿud. Abu Zurʿa al-Dimashqi reports in his Tarikh from Ibn ʿUmar: “He is the person most knowledgeable about what God revealed to Muhammad.”
Yaʿqub likewise narrates (1/495) with a sound chain from Abu Waʾil: Ibn Abbas recited Surat al-Nur and began to explain it, whereupon a man exclaimed, “Had the Daylam heard such an interpretation, they would have embraced Islam.”
The same report is also transmitted by Abu Nuʿaym …