What you should know about Tabari?

What you should know about Tabarî?

By: Shahid Bin Waheed شاهد بن وحيد

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

الحمدلله رب العالمين والصلوة والسلام على اشرف الانبياء وسيدالمرسلين نبينا محمد صل ا لله عليه وعلى آله واصحابه وازواجه اجمعين - امابعد

All the praises and thanks be to Allaah, Sustainer of the Universe, and blessing and salutation to be the most distinguish of the Messengers and foremost among the Prophets, our Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings of Allaah be on him and on his wives, children and Companions.

Ignorance is weakness and self-inflicted ignorance is suicide, which is often the apparent case with Muslims that enables Christian missionaries to stupefy and/or deceive Muslims using some names with questionable references. Tabarî is the name that is used most frequently by Christian missionaries as so-called Muslim source, but the quote is always from the biased, distorted English translation of Tabari’s work done by Orientalist[s] and/or Christian zealot[s]. Therefore, rather rejecting the questionable sources and/or translation under the pretext of “Tabarî”, some Muslims like to condemn Tabarî to be questionable or something bad etc. That is not true at all!

Tafsir Ibn Jarir تفسير ابن جرير (the real name of this Tafsîr is Jami’ al-Bayan جامع البيان) by Allamah Abu Ja’far Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabarî died in 310 A.H. is considered one of the best Tafsîr. Allamah Abu Ja’far Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabarî is a highly rated commentator (Muffasir مفسر) and Muhaddith محدث (expert of Hadeeth) and historian مورخ. Being in thirty volumes, this Tafsîr enjoys the status of a basic source of later commentaries. In his explanation of Ayaat (verses) آيات Allamah Abu Ja’far Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabarî quotes different scholars and then goes on to prove the position, which according to him, is weightier, of course, with arguments and proofs. In brief, readers must know that narrations of all sorts, sound and weak have found a place in his commentary, because of this not every narration presented by al-Tabarî can be relied upon. In reality, Al-Tabarî was aiming through his commentary to collect and compile all narrations that could become available to him, so that this collected material could be put to use later on. Conceded is the fact that he has given the chain of reporters along with each narration so that whoever wished to investigate into the chain of narrators could do so and decide for himself if the narrations are true of false.

Christian missionaries are ignorant of Islaamic sciences, especially Qur’aanic sciences. But they do always plagiarize the Orientalists and/or use the distorted English translation of Islaamic sources mainly Tabari’s. Because Christian missionaries are aware of apparent ignorance of Muslims, which leave the door open for them to deceive Muslims.

Readers must also understand that information found in most Seerah سيره books cannot be equated with Qur’aan, Sunnah سنّه and Ahadeeth احاديث.

Many people imagine that Seerah سيرةالنبی is a branch of the science of Hadeeth حديث – (i.e. it is a collection of different events of the Prophet’s صلی الله عليه وسلم manners and habits as found in different Ahadeeth احاديث). But that is not the case, and we cannot say that no book has been composed on Seerah سيرةالنبی in which care is not taken for authenticity.

The very first question is, what is Seerah سيرةالنبی? In the earlier terminology of the Muhadditheen محدثين (scholars of Hadeeth حديث) and the arbab rijal ارباب رجال (biographers of narrators of Hadeeth حديث) the battles of Prophet Muhammad صلی الله عليه وسلم are known as Maghazi and Seerah سيرة. Accordingly, Ibn Ishaq’s (ابن اسحاق) book is called both, Maghazi and Seerah سيرة. Hafiz Ibn Hajar (حافظ ابن حجار) uses both these names for one book Fath al Bari (فتح الباری), Kitab Maghazi (كتاب مغازی). The same terminology is used in fiqh فقه (Jurisprudence). The chapter Kitab al Jihad wa al-Sayr in the books of fiqh فقه employs the word Seerah سيرة to refer to the injunctions of the battles and Jihad جهاد.

Dimiyati دمياتی is a well-known scholar of Hadeeth حديث, he wrote a book on Seerah سيرة, which is available today as well. He has often agreed with the writers of Seerah سيرة; but when he investigated deeply, he learned the authentic Ahadeeth احاديث should be preferred to account Seerah سيرة. He wished to correct his books but innumerable had been printed already and he could not correct them all. Ibn Hajar ابن حجار has quoted Dimyati دمياتی,

ودل هذا علی انه كان يعتقد الرجوع عن كثير مما وافق فيه اهل السيرو خالف الاحاديث الصحيحة وان ذلك كان به قبل تضلعه منها ولخروج نسخ كتابه وانتشاره لم يتمكن من تغييره

We learn from it that he (Dimyati دمياتی) had resolved to retract everywhere he had preferred the biographers over authentic Ahadeeth احاديث. He had done that before he had gained competency in the science and he could not correct his writings because his book had already been printed.”

Ibn Hajar ابن حجار has then written:

“The substance of this discussion is that Seerah سيرة is a learning by itself and not the same as the science of Hadeeth حديث. The same care is not exercised in reporting them as was done for the six books of Saheeh Ahadeeth صحيح احاديث. We can say by way of example that the learning of fiqh فقه is based on Qur’aan قرآن and Hadeeth حديث but we cannot say that it is the same thing as Qur’aan قرآن or Hadeeth حديث or parallel to them…”

Having said that, I must emphasize that Muslims should not be discourages and/or confused when some disinformation and/or questionable claims are made by anti-Islaam elements to attack and demonize Islaam. The rule is simple, i.e. outright reject the references and/or quotes from the English translations done by non-Muslims of Seerah سيرة books and/or work. Since it has not bearing over Islaamic creed and/or Islaam unless it is supported and/or authenticated by the Glorious Qur’aan and authentic Ahadeeth صحيح احاديث. Glorious Qur’aan, Sunnah and Ahadeeth صحيح احاديث takes precedent over any Seerah سيرة, not the other way around.

Conclusion!

While dealing and/or refuting Christian missionaries, Muslims must refuse to accept the so-called Tabarî and Ibn Ishaq’s quotes and/or reference since it is always from the biased English translation done by a non-Muslim (mainly Orientalist or a zealot Christian missionary). Thereafter, Muslims must demand a complete and accurate quote from Tabari’s and/or Ibn Ishaq’s books directly, provided they are in harmony with the teachings of Islaam found in Glorious Qur’aan, Sunnah (including authentic Ahadeeth صحيح احاديث. This rule must be used and/or applied on all others quotes and/or references used by anti-Islaam forces as well.