We have likewise transmitted from Ibn ʿAbbās that he said, “I am among those firmly grounded in knowledge who know its interpretation.”

Mujāhid said, “I presented the Qurʾān to Ibn ʿAbbās twice, from beginning to end, pausing at every verse to ask him about it.”

It is also related from him that he said, “There are four terms in the Qurʾān the purpose of whose wording I do not know: al-awwāh, ḥanānan, al-raqīm, and al-ghaslīn. Everything else in the Qurʾān I know—except for these four.” (1)

Ibn Wahb and others narrated—from Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah, from ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Abī Yazīd—who said: “When Ibn ʿAbbās was asked about an issue, if it was found in the Book of Allah he ruled by it; if not, yet it was found in the Sunnah, he ruled by it; if the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had not spoken on it, but he found a statement from Abū Bakr or ʿUmar, he adopted it; otherwise he exercised his own judgment.” (2)

Yaʿqūb ibn Sufyān (3) said: Abū ʿĀṣim and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Ḥammād al-Shaʿīthī (4) narrated to us, from Kahmas ibn al-Ḥasan, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Buraydah, who said: “A man once reviled Ibn ʿAbbās, whereupon he replied, ‘You abuse me, yet there are three qualities I possess: whenever I come across a verse in the Book of Allah I wish that people knew from it what I know; whenever I hear of a Muslim judge who rules justly and judges equitably, I rejoice in him [and pray for him], though I may never bring a case before him or plead in his court; and whenever I hear that rain has fallen on any land of the Muslims I am delighted, though I have no livestock there at all.’”

Al-Bayhaqī (5) transmitted this—from al-Ḥākim, from al-Aṣamm, from al-Ḥasan ibn Makram, from Yazīd ibn Hārūn, from Kahmas—with the same chain.

Al-Wāqidī said: A man asked Ibn ʿAbbās about the verse, “The heavens and the earth were once a single mass, and We split them apart” (al-Anbiyāʾ 21:30). He replied, “The heaven was a sealed mass that did not send down rain, and the earth was a sealed mass that did not produce vegetation; so He split this one with rain and that one with plants.” (6)

Ibn Abī Mulaykah said, “I accompanied Ibn ʿAbbās from Madinah to Makkah, and he would pray two rakʿahs; when he alighted he would stand up….”