Skip to content
قQuranicpediaEncyclopedia of the Glorious Qur’an

Ibn Abbas عَبْدُ اللَّهِ بْنُ عَبَّاس

In review — pending scholar verification

Cousin of the Prophet ﷺ and the foremost Companion-exegete of the Quran (hence Tarjuman al-Quran), narrator of approximately 1,660 hadith and the prophetic seed of the classical tafsir tradition.

Overview

ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAbbās (Arabic: عَبْدُ اللَّهِ بْنُ عَبَّاس; c. 619–687 CE / 3 BH–68 AH), often referred to simply as Ibn ʿAbbās, was the cousin of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ — son of his paternal uncle al-ʿAbbās ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib. He is the foremost Companion-exegete of the Quran, honoured by the titles Tarjumān al-Qurʾān ("the Translator/Interpreter of the Quran") and Ḥibr al-Ummah ("the Scholar of the Nation"). He was about thirteen when the Prophet ﷺ died, and lived another fifty-six years through the four Rightly Guided Caliphates and the early Umayyad period.

The Prophet ﷺ specifically supplicated for him: "O Allah, give him understanding (fiqh) of the religion and teach him interpretation (taʾwīl)" (Sahih al-Bukhari 75; Sahih Muslim 2477). The supplication was abundantly answered. Ibn ʿAbbās narrated approximately 1,660 hadith across the canonical collections and produced the foundational tafsīr material from which the entire later exegetical tradition draws.

His tafsir corpus — preserved through students like Mujāhid ibn Jabr, ʿIkrimah, Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, ʿAṭāʾ ibn Abi Rabāḥ, and aṭ-Ṭāwūs — became the core of the classical commentaries. Tafsir al-Ṭabarī alone preserves more than 2,500 narrations from him. Modern editions of the so-called Tafsīr Ibn ʿAbbās (also called Tanwīr al-Miqbās) circulate, but classical scholars consider that compilation's isnad uneven; Ibn ʿAbbās's authentic exegetical tradition is found through the chains in al-Ṭabari, Ibn Abi Ḥatim, and Ibn al-Mundhir.

Lineage

Ibn ʿAbbās was born about three years before the Hijra in Mecca, in the period of the boycott of Banu Hāshim. His father al-ʿAbbās ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib was the Prophet's ﷺ paternal uncle (later a senior Companion); his mother Lubābah bint al-Ḥārith (Umm al-Faḍl) was an early Muslim woman, sister of Maymūnah bint al-Ḥārith (one of the Prophet's ﷺ wives), making her the Prophet's ﷺ sister-in-law. So Ibn ʿAbbās was both the Prophet's ﷺ paternal cousin and nephew-in-law.

Early life with the Prophet ﷺ

Although a child, Ibn ʿAbbās attended the Prophet's ﷺ gatherings whenever he could. The Prophet ﷺ once placed his hand on his shoulder and said: "O Allah, teach him the Book" (Sahih al-Bukhari 143). Ibn ʿAbbās narrated: "The Messenger of Allah ﷺ embraced me and said: O Allah, give him understanding of the religion and teach him interpretation" (Musnad Aḥmad 2397, graded Sahih).

One famous early hadith: he reported staying overnight at his aunt Maymūnah's house and watching the Prophet ﷺ pray tahajjud — the night vigil. He stood at the Prophet's ﷺ left, the Prophet ﷺ moved him to his right, and continued. The hadith is cited as foundational for the rules of leading a single follower in voluntary prayer (Sahih al-Bukhari 138; Sahih Muslim 763).

Method in tafsir

Ibn ʿAbbās codified, by example, the major sources of Quranic exegesis that classical scholars later systematised:

  1. Quran by Quran — interpreting one verse by another that clarifies it.
  2. Quran by Sunnah — using authentic prophetic statements.
  3. Sayings of senior Companions — citing the explanations he received from Abu Bakr, ʿUmar, ʿUthman, ʿAli, ʿĀʾishah, and others.
  4. Arabic poetry and language — Ibn ʿAbbās famously cited pre-Islamic poetry to clarify Quranic vocabulary.
  5. Knowledge of the People of the Book — used cautiously, especially through Kaʿb al-Aḥbār, to identify but not corroborate Israʼili traditions.

Quranic references

No verse of the Quran is specifically about Ibn ʿAbbās, but classical commentators link his profound understanding to verses on knowledge in general:

  • Surah al-Mujādilah 58:11 — "Allah will raise those who have believed among you and those who were given knowledge by degrees." Cited in his biographical entries (al-Dhahabī).
  • Surah Aal Imran 3:18 — "Allah witnesses that there is no deity except Him, and the angels and those of knowledge — maintaining justice."

Famous hadith and sayings

Ibn ʿAbbās reported that the Prophet ﷺ embraced him and said: "O Allah, give him understanding of the religion and teach him interpretation." — Sahih al-Bukhari 75; Sahih Muslim 2477
Ibn ʿAbbās reported the Prophet ﷺ said: "There are two blessings about which many people are deceived: health and free time." — Sahih al-Bukhari 6412
Ibn ʿAbbās reported the Prophet ﷺ said, when sending Muʿādh ibn Jabal to Yemen: "You are coming to a people who are People of the Book; let the first thing you call them to be the testimony that there is no deity but Allah and that I am the Messenger of Allah. If they obey you in that, inform them that Allah has obligated upon them five prayers in every day and night." — Sahih al-Bukhari 1395; Sahih Muslim 19

After the Prophet ﷺ

Ibn ʿAbbās lived through the four Rightly Guided Caliphates. Despite his youth, ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb included him in his consultative council of senior Companions — when his peers questioned the inclusion of so young a man, ʿUmar would test him by asking the meaning of a Quranic verse, and Ibn ʿAbbās would expound at length. ʿUmar said: "He is what you have seen. He has a mature tongue and an inquisitive heart" (Sahih al-Bukhari 4970).

He served briefly as governor of Basra under ʿAli ibn Abi Ṭālib. Through the First Fitna he generally aligned with ʿAli but participated in the famous discussions with the Khawārij at Ḥarūrāʾ, in which his careful exposition of Quranic refutations brought several thousand back into ʿAli's ranks. After ʿAli's assassination he focused on teaching, settling first in Mecca, then in Ṭāʾif. He lost his sight in old age and was once asked how he bore it; he replied: "If Allah took my eyes, He has left me my heart and my tongue."

Death

Ibn ʿAbbās died in Ṭāʾif in 68 AH (687 CE), aged about 71. The leading Companion of his generation, Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allah, said at his death: "There has died today the most knowledgeable and forbearing of mankind." He is buried in Ṭāʾif.

Legacy and significance

Ibn ʿAbbās is the seed of the classical tafsīr tradition. Every major commentator — al-Ṭabari, Ibn Kathir, al-Qurṭubi, ar-Rāzi, al-Baghawi, al-Suyuti — relies heavily on his preserved exegesis. The Sunni position is that his standing as the foremost Companion-exegete is a direct fruit of the Prophet's ﷺ supplication for him; his methodology — Quran-by-Quran, then Sunnah, then Companion-explanation, then Arabic — is the framework all subsequent classical exegesis follows.

See also

References

  1. Sahih al-Bukhari, hadith nos. 75, 138, 143, 1395, 4970, 6412. Trans. M. Muhsin Khan.
  2. Sahih Muslim, hadith nos. 19, 763, 2477. Trans. Abdul Hamid Siddiqui.
  3. Musnad Ahmad 2397, graded Sahih.
  4. al-Dhahabi, Siyar Aʿlām an-Nubalāʾ, vol. 3 — entry on Ibn ʿAbbās.
  5. Ibn Hajar al-ʿAsqalani, al-Iṣābah fī Tamyīz aṣ-Ṣaḥābah, entry on Ibn ʿAbbās.
  6. al-Suyuti, al-Itqān fī ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān, sections on Ibn ʿAbbās in tafsir.
  7. al-Tabari, Jamiʿ al-Bayān, throughout (citing Ibn ʿAbbās via Mujāhid, Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, ʿIkrimah).
  8. Ibn Taymiyyah, Muqaddimah fī Uṣūl at-Tafsīr, on Ibn ʿAbbās's methodology.
  9. Abdul-Wahhab al-Najjar, al-Khulafāʾ ar-Rāshidūn, sections on Ibn ʿAbbās's career under each caliph.