he added, “Go out and announce: Whoever wishes to ask about what is lawful and unlawful, or about jurisprudence, let him come in.”

So I went out and made the announcement, and they entered until both the house and the vestibule were filled. There was nothing they asked him about except that he informed them of it, adding the like of it or even more. Then he said, “Your brothers,” and they withdrew.

He then said, “Go out and say: Whoever wishes to ask about the obligatory shares of inheritance and matters akin to them, let him come in.” I went out and announced it, and they entered until the house and the vestibule were filled. Whatever they asked about, he answered them and then added the like of it or even more. Then he said, “Your brothers,” and they withdrew.

Next he said, “Go out and say: Whoever wishes to ask about the Arabic language, poetry, or unusual expressions, let him come in.” I went out and announced it, and they came in until the house and the vestibule were packed. Whatever they asked him about, he answered and then added the like of it. Then he said, “Your brothers,” and they left.

Abū Ṣāliḥ commented, “If all of Quraysh had boasted of this, it would have been an honour well deserved; I have never seen anything comparable for anyone else.”

Ṭāwūs and Maymūn ibn Mihrān said, “We have never seen anyone more scrupulous than Ibn ʿUmar, nor anyone more learned than Ibn ʿAbbās (1).” Maymūn added, “And Ibn ʿAbbās was the more learned of the two.”

Shurayk the judge related—from al-Aʿmash, from Abū Ḍaḥḥā—on the authority of Masrūq: “Whenever I looked at Ibn ʿAbbās I would say, ‘The most handsome of people’; when he spoke I would say, ‘The most eloquent of people’; and when he discoursed I would say, ‘The most knowledgeable of people’ (2).”

Yaʿqūb ibn Sufyān said: Abū al-Nuʿmān narrated to us; Ḥammād ibn Zayd narrated to us, from al-Zubayr ibn al-Ḥārith, from ʿIkrimah, who said, “Ibn ʿAbbās was the more learned of the two concerning the Quran, whereas ʿAlī was the more learned concerning the obscure passages (3).”

Isḥāq ibn Rāhawayh explained: “This was because Ibn ʿAbbās had absorbed from ʿAlī what he possessed of tafsīr and combined it with what he had taken from Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, ʿUthmān, Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, and other senior Companions—alongside the Prophet’s ﷺ supplication that Allah teach him the Book.”

Abū Muʿāwiyah narrated—from al-Aʿmash, from Abū Wāʾil Shaqīq ibn Salamah—who said: “Ibn ʿAbbās delivered a sermon at the pilgrimage; he opened with Sūrat al-Baqarah, reciting and interpreting it. I kept saying to myself, ‘I have never seen or heard a man speak like this; if Persia and Rome had heard him, they would have embraced Islam’ (4).”

Abū Bakr ibn ʿAyyāsh likewise narrated—from ʿĀṣim ibn Abī al-Nujūd, from Abū Wāʾil—that Ibn ʿAbbās led the people in pilgrimage the year ʿUthmān was killed. On that occasion he recited Sūrat al-Nūr and delivered a discourse similar to the foregoing. It appears that the first incident occurred in the time of ʿAlī, when he recited Sūrat al-Baqarah during that pilgrimage, and that during the turmoil surrounding ʿUthmān he recited Sūrat al-Nūr—Allah knows best.