— al-Suyooti —
-Name of the Mufassir:
He was Abu’l-Fadl, ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad al-Suyooti, al-Shaafi’ee. His name is often prefaced with the title al-haafidh due to his extensive knowledge of hadeeth. He is also well-known by his honorific title Jalal al-Deen. He was a prolific author and an expert in a wide range of disciplines. He died in the year 911Ah/1505CE.
-Name of the Book:
al-Durr al-Manthoor fee al-Tafseer al-Ma’thoor [الدر المنثور في التفسير المأثور]
Note that al-Suyooti authored several books related to tafsir. Among other works to his credit is the famous Tafsir al-Jalalayn.
-General Description of the Book:
Before authoring this book, al-Suyooti had finished a more ambitious book of tafsir entitled Tarjaman al-Qur’an which was composed of the tafsir-related statements of the Prophet and the Sahabah along with their complete chains of narrations and attribution to the books from which they had been drawn. Many who would have liked to read this work were discouraged by its great length and encouraged al-Suyooti to make an abridged version which would only include the text of the ahaadeeth without the chains of narration, but would retain the references to their original source books. al-Suyooti followed their suggestions, and the result was al-Durr al-Manthoor fee al-Tafseer al-Ma’thoor, the work under discussion in this profile.
-Stance regarding isnaads (chains of narration):
In this book, al-Suyooti limited himself to only bringing the text of the hadeeth without mentioning the chain of narration. However he did reference every hadeeth and athar to their source books. He drew on the collections of al-Bukhari, Muslim, al-Nasaa’i, al-Tirmidhi, Ahmad, Abu Dawud, ibn Abi Haatim, ibn Abi’l-Dunya, and others.
Despite his extensive and expert knowledge of the hadeeth sciences, al-Suyooti did not include any comments on the authenticity of the statements he included, notes on the narrators in their chains of narration, explanatory notes of their contents or any other form of commentary. Thus, this book is composed purely of narrated statements from the Prophet and the salaf regarding tafsir.
al-Suyooti aimed merely to amass the relevant statements and collect them all together, without any attempt or claim to only include sound or authentic narrations. As such, this book contains a mix of both authentic and inauthentic narrations throughout.
Bibliography:
التفسير والمفسرين لمحمد حسين الدهبي
التيسير لمعرفة المشهور من أسانيد و كتب التفسير
Back to Mufassir Profiles Index
See also: About the Books of Tafsir
Tulayhah 