and actions and tacit approvals of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. After that, one turns to the explanations provided by the scholars—foremost among them the Companions of the Messenger ﷺ, at the head of whom stands ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd (may Allah be pleased with him). This preference is due, first, to the length of his companionship with the Prophet ﷺ and, second, to his diligence in questioning the Prophet about the Qur’an, understanding it, and conveying its interpretation. Next comes ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAbbās (may Allah be pleased with him); Ibn Masʿūd even said of him, “He is the Interpreter of the Qur’an.” Thereafter, any Companion from whom an authentic explanation of a verse has been transmitted—so long as no differing view exists among the Companions—is accepted with full satisfaction, submission, and assent.

If no such report is available, we must then turn to the Successors who devoted themselves to learning tafsīr from the Companions of the Messenger ﷺ—such as Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, Ṭāwūs, and others famed for receiving Qur’anic interpretation from certain Companions, especially Ibn ʿAbbās, as already noted.

Regrettably, some verses have come to be interpreted on the basis of personal opinion or sectarian bias, without any direct explanation from the Prophet ﷺ. Certain later scholars venture to interpret these verses so as to align them with their particular school, and this is a most dangerous matter: the verses are thus made to appear as proof for that school, even though the recognized exegetes explained them in a manner quite different from the interpretation advanced by those partisans.