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Tafsir Ibn Kathir تَفْسِير ابْن كَثِير

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A comprehensive classical Quran commentary by Ismaʿil ibn Kathir (d. 774 AH), built on Quran-by-Quran, Quran-by-Sunnah, and Companion-explanation methodology — the most-circulated tafsir in modern Sunni publication.

Overview

Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm, popularly known as Tafsīr Ibn Kathīr (Arabic: تَفْسِير ابْن كَثِير), is the most widely-published classical commentary on the Quran in the modern Sunni world. It was written by ʿImād ad-Dīn Ismāʿīl ibn ʿUmar ibn Kathīr ad-Dimashqī (700–774 AH / 1300–1373 CE), a major historian and student of Ibn Taymiyyah.

Ibn Kathīr's methodology — articulated in his introduction — is the gold standard of tafsīr bi-l-maʾthūr (commentary by transmission):

  1. Quran by Quran — interpreting one verse with another that clarifies it.
  2. Quran by Sunnah — using authentic hadith from the Prophet ﷺ.
  3. Companion explanations — citing Ibn ʿAbbās, ʿAli, ʿĀʾishah, and others.
  4. Successor explanations — Mujāhid, Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, ʿIkrimah, ʿAṭāʾ, etc.
  5. Arabic linguistics — supplementary, not primary.

Ibn Kathīr was particularly cautious about Isrāʾīliyyāt (narrations from the People of the Book). Where his teacher at-Ṭabarī reported many such narrations without grading, Ibn Kathīr classified them as: (1) those confirmed by Islamic sources — accept; (2) those contradicted by Islamic sources — reject; (3) those neither confirmed nor contradicted — neither accept nor reject, narrate without endorsement.

Distinctive features

  • Hadith are cited with isnads, allowing the reader to verify chains.
  • Variant readings (qirāʾāt) are noted where relevant.
  • Linguistic analysis is woven in but does not dominate.
  • The work is encyclopaedic on prophetic narratives — Ibn Kathīr is also the author of al-Bidāyah wa-an-Nihāyah and Qiṣaṣ al-Anbiyāʾ.

Significance

Tafsīr Ibn Kathīr is the most widely available, most translated, and most popularly studied classical commentary today. Darussalam's ten-volume English abridgement is in print worldwide. The work is regarded as the standard reference for tafsīr bi-l-maʾthūr.

See also

References

  1. Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm, ed. Sami al-Salama (Dar al-Tayyibah, 8 vols., 1999).
  2. Trans. Safi-ur-Rahman al-Mubarakpuri (ed.), Tafsir Ibn Kathir (Abridged) (Darussalam, 10 vols.).
  3. al-Dhahabī, Siyar Aʿlām an-Nubalāʾ, vol. 16 — life of Ibn Kathīr.
  4. al-Suyūṭī, al-Itqān fī ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān, on tafsir methodology.