2a] 'Ulûm al-Qur'ân"7-Tafsir by the Statement of The Companions

2a]
For example, in the shâdh qirâ'a of Ibn Mas'ûd, the verse which told
the believers to "fast three days" (5:89) as an expiation of an
unfulfilled oath was read by him as: "fast three consecutive days."
Due to this shâdh qirâ'a , later scholars differed over whether it was
necessary to fast threeconsecutive days, or whether it sufficed to
fast any three days if one did not fulfil an oath.
To conclude, if the Companions agreed to an interpretation of a verse,
that interpretation must be accepted, since it qualifies as ijmâ' . On
the other hand, if there exist narrations from one Companion
concerning theinterpretation of a verse, and there does not exist any
narrations to the contrary from other Companions, this interpretation
is also accepted, but is not equivalent in strength to the
interpretation given bythe Prophet (saws). If there exist various
narrations from different Companions which are notcontradictory in
nature, then all such interpretations are accepted. If there exist
contrary narrations from different Companions concerning the same
verse,in this case the researcher can choose between the different
interpretations, depending on which interpretation seems to have the
strongest evidence to support it.
Tafsîr by the Statement of the Successors Before moving on to the next
section, a brief note concerning the tafsîr narrations from the
Successors would be useful. Some scholars took the tafsîr of the
Successors to be the next source of tafsîr after the tafsîr of the
Companions. As proof for this stance, they relied on the statements of
certain prominent Successors concerning their knowledge of the Qur'ân.
Qatâdah (d. 110 A.H.) said,
"There is not a single versein the Qur'ân except that I have heard
something concerning it."
Mujâhid (d. 103 A.H.) said,
"I recited the Qur'ân to Ibn'Abbâs three times. In eachrecitation, I
stopped at every verse, asking him concerning its interpretation."
This is why Sufyân ath-Thawree (d. 161 A.H.) said,
"When you hear an interpretation from Mujâhid, this should be
sufficient for you!" [5]
Other scholars, however, rejected this view. They claimed that an
interpretation of a Successor could not have originated from the
Prophet (saws), as could the interpretation of a Companion, since they
never saw the Prophet (saws). Also, they did not witness the
revelation, as did the generation before them, and their
trustworthiness is not guaranteed specifically for every one of their
generation, unlike the Companions (in other words, the
trustworthinessof every single Companions is guaranteed by the Qur'ân,
whereas this is not the case for the Successors, for they have been
praised as a. generation, and not individually).
Therefore, the correct viewin this matter, as Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728
A.H.) said, is that if the Successors give the same interpretation to
a verse, then their interpretation must be accepted, but if they
differed among themselves, then the opinion of one group will have no
authority over theother group, nor over the generations after them. In
such cases, one must resort to the Qur'ân, the Sunnah, the Companions,
and the Arabic language inorder to obtain the correct interpretation.
[6]
Footnotes
1 Reported by al-Bukhârî
2 c£ as-Suyûtî, Tadrîb ar-Râwî, pps. 156-8.
3 az-Zarkashî, v. 2, p. 172.
4 c£ adh-Dhahabî, v. 1, p. 63.