Write some famous Tafsirs- write about their schools of thought

In the name of Allah most gracious , most merciful

Jamal Dookhy

Write some famous Tafsirs- write about their schools of thought

The most famous writer of Tafsir,  with no doubt was during the time of the prophet (saws), he was Abdullah ibn Abbas the cousin of the prophet(saws) who even the prophet (Saws) made duah for him. Although we do not have any bo0ok of Tafseer directly form ibn Abbas however His student As-saadi has his tafsir in written format which we can available on the market today from which many prominent scholars quote. As-saadi was from the tabi-in.The Richteous generation that followed the sahaba and as we see with As-Saadi some were students of the Sahabas. Tafsir from the sahabas were known as tafsir from the aathar.

The oldest after that was the tafisr of  Muhammad Ibn Jareer At-Tabari who was from Tabreez now northen Iran, he was from the shaafi’ee school of thought.His book was called Jaami’ Al-Bayaan fee Tafseer al Quran.He was considered as a great tafsir , hadeeth scholar and historian so much so that his tafsirs have been used in the translation of the Noble Quran. He lived between 225 and 310 AH

Chronologically his tafsir was followed by that of Abil Layth as Samarqandee (Barh al uloom)also known as Imam al Hind, in 372AH.He was Hanafee scholar and unfortunately his tafsirs contain weak narrations and did not contain chains form the sahaba.

 There was Imam Abee Ishaaq Ibn  Ibraheem (Al kashf al Bayyan fee tafseer al Quran) who was well known in his time in 427 AH. He was from Nishapur in India. He used a lot of Israeeliates in his narrations (Biblical narrations).Much of his work included weak narrations and fabricated hadeeths.

Ibn Ateeyah who followed (481- 540 AH) was a Maalikee scholar he was from north Africa and his works are in print.

Another prominent shaafi’ee tafsir scholar of that time was Al-husayn Muhammad al Baghawee (510AH) his book tafseer ath-thalabee was a great work from which weak and fabricated narrations were removed. He too used some Isra’eeliate. This too is in print.

Faqrudeen Al Raazee (544-606AH) chronologically speaking he was next in the line of great mufassireen. His work too was very popular with the scholars. He was from the shaafi’ee school of thought. His works have been printed in eight volumes.

At this point we have to introduce a very famous mufassir who although not being from Arabia, his Tafsirs are found these days only in Arabic and to this d day have not been translated into English. Imam Muhammad ibn Ahmed al Ansaree al Qurtuby, (who died in 671AH) was born in Cordoba, Spain. He was of the Maalikee school of thought. His tafsir are highly regarded among the three most quoted.

Abul Fidaa Ismaeel Ibn Katheer ad dimishqee (699-774 AH) is a very prominent scholar of tafsir. His work is what we use mainly today after that of at-Tabari. He too was a shaafi’ee scholar. His tafseer is considered the most authentic and he actually does not use Israeeliate and warns against them. He was among the three mainly quoted Ibn Katheer, Qurtuby and Jalalain.

In this category of tafisr one cannot conclude without the third well known Tafsir,  Al-Jalalain as it is known, which incorporates the tafsir of Jalaludeen as Suyoutee and other prominent mufassir not mentioned above and Jalaludeen al Mahallee. Their tafsirs were similar in most issues and seemed to differ very little. Imam al Mahallee was the one who wrote first of the two mufassirs and after his death Imam Suyoutee (who was a shaafi’ee) continued and their tafsirs were combined to make the al-jalalain tafsir. It is very unfortunate that this too has not been translated into English as it is monumental in the field of tafsirs.

 Imam Muhammad ibn Ali as Sawqanee is another name often mentiionmed by scholars when it comes to |tafsir.He was around much later in the 13th century (1255AH). He was from Sa’aa Yemen.He started out as a  Zaydee scholar but later changed his school of thought.His tafsir  “fath al Qadeer” is in print in five volumes.

This list is chronological dating the times these Authors were alive and not their order of importance as mufassuireen. I only mentioned a few since in order of popularity I would have added more. No doubt, in order of popularity; the list would look very different. There are many other good Tasfirs that were written between the times I have documented above and the modern day writers but I have not documented them since this would require a whole booklet to do so. I focused mainly on some of the most popular ones in chronological order. 

There were also modern day writers of tafsir by Syed Qutub who wrote Fee Dhilal al Quran. He was considered as the best among the present day tafsir. His school of thought was Islahi and he focuses more on the contemporary issues we face today like establishing shariah on this earth, He has influenced many who want to establish the Khilafah in many parts of the world. His works are available in print in both Arabic and English.

So as we can see here some of the famous writers of Tafsir of the early days and the modern, written down in chronological order.