These hypocrites heard the voice of the Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, but did not understand. They said, “What did he say just now?”—meaning, a moment ago. These are the words of someone who did not understand what he said. Thus, He Most High said:

“Those are the ones whose hearts Allah has sealed and who follow their own desires.”

Whoever regards the earliest forerunners among the Emigrants and the Helpers, and those who followed them in righteousness, as ignorant of the meanings of the Quran places them on a par with the disbelievers and hypocrites in the very failing for which Allah Most High censured them.

The sixth is that the Companions, may Allah be pleased with them, explained the Quran to the Successors. Mujāhid said, “I went through the Quran with Ibn ʿAbbās from beginning to end, stopping at every verse and asking him about it.” For this reason, Sufyān al-Thawrī said, “If an explanation of the Quran reaches you from Mujāhid, that is sufficient for you.”

Ibn Masʿūd used to say, “If I knew of anyone more knowledgeable about Allah’s Book than I am whom camels could reach, I would go to him.” From each of the students of Ibn Masʿūd and Ibn ʿAbbās, explanations of the Quran have been transmitted in numbers that only Allah can count. Such reports from the Companions and the Successors are well established and familiar to scholars versed in them.

If someone says, “They differed greatly over the interpretation of the Quran. Had they learned its interpretation from the Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, they would not have differed over it.”