who was more knowledgeable of Allah’s Book than I am—so long as beasts of burden could reach him—I would most certainly go to him.

Al-Aʿmash also reported through Abū Wāʾil that Ibn Masʿūd said: “When a man among us learned ten verses, he would not move past them until he had grasped their meanings and put them into practice.”

Among those foremost in this field is the prolific scholar and “ocean” of learning, ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAbbās, the Prophet’s cousin and the Interpreter of the Qur’an, endowed with this rank by the blessing of the Prophet’s prayer for him: “O Allah, grant him deep understanding of the religion and teach him the interpretation.”

Ibn Jarīr related: Muḥammad ibn Bashshār narrated to us; Wakīʿ informed us; Sufyān informed us, from al-Aʿmash, from Muslim, from Masrūq, who said: ʿAbd Allah—meaning Ibn Masʿūd—remarked, “Ibn ʿAbbās is indeed an excellent interpreter of the Qur’an.” He then reported the same through Yaḥyā ibn Dāwūd, from Isḥāq al-Azraq, from Sufyān, from al-Aʿmash, from Muslim ibn Ṣabīḥ Abū al-Ḍaḥḥā, from Masrūq, from Ibn Masʿūd: “Ibn ʿAbbās is truly the best interpreter of the Qur’an.” He likewise transmitted it through Bundār, from Jaʿfar ibn ʿAwn, from al-Aʿmash with the same chain. Thus the chain concluding with Ibn Masʿūd’s praise of Ibn ʿAbbās is sound.

Ibn Masʿūd died in 33 AH, according to the stronger view, and Ibn ʿAbbās lived another thirty-six years after him—so imagine the breadth of knowledge he acquired following Ibn Masʿūd’s passing.

Al-Aʿmash further narrated from Abū Wāʾil: ʿAlī deputized ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAbbās over the pilgrimage season. Ibn ʿAbbās delivered a sermon in which he recited Sūrah al-Baqarah—and, in another version, Sūrah al-Nūr—and expounded it with such clarity that, had the Byzantines, the Turks, and the Daylamites heard it, they would have embraced Islam.

For this reason, most of what Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Suddi narrates