Tafsir by transmitted report (bi'l-ma'thur)

Tafsir by transmitted report (al-tafsir bi'l-ma'thur) explains the meanings of the Qur'an through what has been handed down rather than by reasoning alone: by the Qur'an itself, then by the Sunna, then by the sayings of the Companions, then by those of the Successors. It is one of the two broad kinds of tafsir that Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi names when he says that some commentaries are "dominated by the character of tafsir by transmitted report" and others "by the character of tafsir by opinion". ¹ The second kind is recorded under tafsir by opinion.

In the introduction to al-Tafsir al-Wasit, Tantawi quotes, in a freely summarised form, Ibn Kathir's answer to the question: what is the best method of interpretation? ^{2 1} The answer is that the soundest way is to interpret the Qur'an by the Qur'an, since what is brief in one place is set out at length in another. ¹

If that is not found, one turns to the Sunna, because it "explains and clarifies the Qur'an"; Ibn Kathir supports this with the hadith "I have been given the Qur'an and its like along with it". ¹

If it is not found in the Sunna, one turns to the sayings of the Companions, who "knew it best" because of the circumstances and contexts they alone witnessed and because of their full understanding and sound knowledge, above all their leading figures such as the Rightly Guided Caliphs. ¹ Here Ibn Kathir cites Abd Allah ibn Mas'ud's statement that no verse was revealed without his knowing about whom and where it was revealed, and Abu Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami's report that their teachers, having learned ten verses, did not go beyond them until they had acted on them: "so we learned the Qur'an and the practice together". ¹

If the interpretation is found neither in the Qur'an, nor in the Sunna, nor from the Companions, many imams turned to the sayings of the Successors, such as Mujahid ibn Jabr, Sa'id ibn Jubayr, Ikrima the client of Ibn Abbas, Ata' ibn Abi Rabah and al-Hasan al-Basri. ¹

Tantawi makes this order a basis of his commentary: he supports the overall meaning of each verse "with what confirms the meaning from other verses, from the Prophet ﷺ's hadith and from the sayings of the righteous early generations". ³ He gives the occasion of revelation of a verse "if one exists and is acceptable" — that is, he does not accept every report — and describes his work as purged of weak opinions. ^{1 3} For example, he rejects a report on why the basmala is missing at the head of Surat al-Tawba because its chain turns on a narrator who is almost unknown, quoting Ahmad Shakir; see Why does Surat al-Tawba not open with the basmala?. ⁴

The introduction to al-Tafsir al-Muyassar counts among the chief works of transmitted exegesis al-Tabari's Jami' al-Bayan, quoting Ibn Taymiyya that it is among the most eminent commentaries; al-Baghawi's Ma'alim al-Tanzil, because he sought soundness in most of the views and reports he gave; and Ibn Kathir's commentary. ⁵ One of its own rules is "putting sound transmitted exegesis before anything else". ⁶