the exegete Abū Jaʿfar al-Ṭabarī; and we do not set either of them side-by-side with any other commentary now in our hands, for we have never seen their equal, nor anything that even comes close.” (1)
He also said, “By means of it the student learns how to critique both chains of transmission and texts, and how to distinguish the sound report from the unsound. In its very nature it is a magnificent instructional work whose benefit is weighty and abundant.” (2)
• God, exalted is He, decreed for this tafsīr wide circulation and acceptance in the lands of Greater Syria, especially during the last fifty years or so. I heard our teacher Shaykh Nāyif al-ʿAbbās—may Allah preserve him—affirm this, and its cause is most likely the hadith revival now witnessed throughout the Muslim world. All praise and bounty belong to Allah.
[2 – Faḍāʾil al-Qurʾān]
This book appears at the end of Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm. In it Ibn Kathīr collects the narrations on the Qur’an’s virtues, its history, compilation, writing, the seven canonical readings, and the manner of its recitation. He follows the pattern adopted by al-Bukhārī, who placed his Book on the Virtues of the Qur’an immediately after the Book of Tafsīr.
Sometimes it is printed together with the tafsīr and at other times as an independent volume. Ibn Kathīr explicitly states in his commentary that the book Faḍāʾil al-Qurʾān serves as a preface to the tafsīr. He likewise refers to this in al-Bidāyah wa-l-Nihāyah, where, while discussing the consensus regarding the codex of ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān—may Allah be pleased with him—he says:
“As we have set forth in the book Faḍāʾil al-Qurʾān, which we wrote as an introduction at the beginning of the tafsīr.” (3)
His method consists of:
- Opening each section with the relevant Qur’anic verses.
- Amassing numerous ḥadīths with their isnāds, beginning with those recorded by al-Bukhārī and Muslim.
- Quoting the statements of the Companions and the Successors.
- Authenticating certain ḥadīths, indicating the soundest reports, and commenting on some of the transmitters.
- Extracting lessons, benefits, and legal rulings.
The book has been published separately in Beirut and Cairo, among them:
– Qur’anic Sciences Foundation edition, Beirut, edited by Muḥammad Ibrāhīm al-Bannā.
– Dār al-Ḥadīth edition, Cairo, edited by Saʿīd ʿAbd al-Majīd Maḥmūd.
[3 – al-Bidāyah wa-l-Nihāyah]
This is a comprehensive work on Islamic history, including the pre-Islamic accounts of the prophets and earlier nations,