ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd narrated: Sulaymān ibn Ḥarb told us; Ḥammād ibn Zayd narrated from Thābit, from Anas, who said, “We were once with ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, and the back of his shirt carried four patches. He recited, ‘and fruit and fodder’ (Q 80:31), then asked, ‘What is al-abb?’ After that he said, ‘This is needless over-analysis; it does you no harm not to know it.’

All of this is to be understood as meaning that the two of them—may Allah be pleased with them—were only trying to discover the exact nature of al-abb. That it is simply a plant that grows from the earth is perfectly clear and not unknown, for Allah says: ‘We caused to grow therein grain, grapes, clover, olives and date-palms, and luxuriant gardens’ (Q 80:27-30).

Ibn Jarīr reported: Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm told us; Ibn ʿUlayyah narrated from Ayyūb, from Ibn Abī Mulaykah that Ibn ʿAbbās was asked about a verse—one that some of you, if asked, would surely have ventured an opinion about—but he refused to comment on it. Its chain is sound.

Abū ʿUbayd said: Ismāʿīl ibn Ibrāhīm told us; Ayyūb narrated from Ibn Abī Mulaykah who said: A man asked Ibn ʿAbbās about the verse, ‘in a day whose measure is a thousand years of what you count’ (Q 32:5). Ibn ʿAbbās replied, ‘And what of “a day whose measure is fifty thousand years” (Q 70:4)?’ The man said, ‘I only asked so that you would explain it to me.’ Ibn ʿAbbās answered, ‘They are two days that Allah has mentioned in His Book; Allah knows best about them,’ for he disliked speaking about the Book of Allah without knowledge.

Ibn Jarīr also reported: Yaʿqūb—that is, Ibn Ibrāhīm—told us; Ibn ʿUlayyah narrated from Mahdī ibn Maymūn, from al-Walīd ibn Muslim, who said: Ṭalq ibn Ḥabīb came to Jundub ibn ʿAbd Allāh and asked him about a verse from the Qur’an. Jundub said, ‘I place you under oath—if you are a Muslim—stand up and leave me,’ or he said, ‘do not sit with me.’

And Mālik narrated from Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib that whenever he was asked about the exegesis of a Qur’anic verse he would say, ‘We do not venture to say anything about the Qur’an.’