Aqeel Mahmood – The Life of Imam Ibn Katheer Rah
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No. That's but let's get before stock.
I'm gonna stock tomorrow.
Last week, we finished the tafsir of, Surat
al Shams, and we said that today, Insha'Allah,
we're going to be talking about the lives
of 1 of the,
Mufassiroun,
one of the scholars of tafsir.
And this was something we decided to do
because sometimes it's good to have a break,
in between the the Tafsir classes that we
do. And also one of the other benefits
of this is that you learn more about
the scholars of Tafsir
and
where they came from and how much effort
they made with regards to,
their pursuit of knowledge and how their methodology
was with regards to writing their books of
tafsir.
And generally, it gives you more of a
understanding and more of a
appreciation to the science of tafsir in and
of itself.
And last time we did this, we did,
the life of Imam Tabari,
So today, inshallah, we're going to be discussing
and talking about the life of, Imam Ibn
Kathir,
the author of the famous book of Tafsir
Tafsir Abu Kathir.
And or Tafsir Tafsir al Qur'an Alawdim as
it as it's known, as it was,
recorded and has as he
named it himself, but has become famous as
Tafsirub Nukathir.
And,
as I mentioned with with these classes and
with these with these,
with these special classes, we're going to be
talking about their lives and
where they were
brought up, and in what kind of situation
they were brought up, and their early life,
and what they who they studied with, and
and generally,
their lives. And also, we'll talk about the
book as well, of Ibn Kathir,
with regards to his tafsir. So who was
Imam Ibn Kathir Rahimahullah?
Imam Ibn Kathir,
his full name was actually Ismail,
ibn Umar,
ibn Uqathir,
ibn Ubo, ibn Uqathir.
So this was his name Ishmael, the son
of Omar, the son of Kathir, the son
of Dov, the son of Kathir. And he
was given a nickname, okay, by scholars,
and they called him Imaduddin
or the the pillar of the religion
because of his immense contribution to Islam, and
his punya was Abul Faddah. So he was
known as Abul Faddah. And Ibn Kathir Rahimahullah,
he was born,
in a city in Sham
in the year 700 Hijra,
and this city is known as Busra.
And it's,
a distance away from, Dimish from Damascus. And
in current day, it's basically in, modern day
Syria.
And at the time of his birth, he
was born in the year 700 Hijra.
The state of the Muslims at the time
was
such that they were
in a period of
instability
to a certain extent
because you had the Mongols
on one side who were attacking, and they
were at war with the Mongols, and also
you had the the Romans who were on
the other side. And
the period this specific period, you had the
Mamluk dynasty.
The Mamluk the Mamluks, they were the ones
who had basically,
taken over and they were the leaders,
at the time, and this was their era.
So it it was after
the Ayyubid dynasty.
So Salahuddin Al Ayyubid and the other, prominent
people at that time, Nur Ud Din al
Zanki and the other,
famous people from the Ayyubid dynasty who, you
know, protected the Al Quds and other places
from the crusades. This is after this now.
It's taking place after this, and this is
the the time period in which Imam Ibn
Kathir Rahimahullah
was born. So he was born in Busra,
and they say that he was born in
a place close to Busra.
But from a very early age, his family
basically moved to Busra, and that's where he
was basically raised. But they say that some
also say he was actually born in Busra
itself, or if not Busra, then a place
close to Busra. But he he became known
as even he himself became known as al
Busrawi,
meaning the person who was born in Busra.
So he was born in Busra in the
year 700 Hijra, and his family, they were
known to be a family of scholars.
So his family were known to be a
religious, righteous, pious family. His his father
was a scholar in his own right. His
father was a famous scholar. He was known
to be a Faqih. He was known to
be a poet. He was a famous shayl.
He was a famous Faqih, and also he
was a khatib in Busra itself.
So he he grew up in a environment
where his family members were basically scholars as
well. And generally speaking, his family
and his father,
was someone who basically encouraged him to,
or generally encouraged and pushed his family towards
the the direction of learning about Islam specifically.
When he was 3 years old, his father
actually passed away.
At the age of 3, his father passed
away, and he himself talks about this. He
himself, he talks about this, and he he
says, I was around the age of 3
years old when my father passed away, Omer,
who was his father. He said, when my
father passed away, I was around 3 years
old, and it feels like.
It feels like a dream.
It feels like a dream. And I barely
remember some
things about my father, just some things about
my father because I was so young. And
this is why the scholars say that he
was born in 700 because some of the
historians, they say he was born in 701.
But they say most likely he was born
in 700 because he still remembers some remnants
of what his father was like. And if
someone was 2 years old when his father
passed away, that's too young. The age is
too young for a person to remember anything.
So 3 years old makes more sense because
he says he remembers certain things about his
father. He feel but he feels like a
dream.
So his father passed away. So who basically
looked after him?
His brother
was the one who raised him after this
and looked after him and took care of
him.
And his father his his brother's name was
Abdul Wahab Abdul Wahab ibn Umar. And his
brother also was someone who was,
a a a scholar in his own right.
He was a scholar. He was a faqih.
He was someone who was a teacher. He
was a khatib. So his brother was the
one who basically raised him, and, also, he's
the one who was the first educator. He
was his first teacher.
The first teacher of,
of Ibn Kathir
was his brother, Abdul Wahab.
And he taught him
from a young age ever since his his
father passed away at the age of 3,
and he traveled with him to Damascus. And
we don't know the exact age of, Abdul
Wahab, but
you can imagine that he was at the
age where he was able to look after
him. So maybe his late teens, around that
age. He was around that age because he
was looking after Ibn Kathir who was 3
years old. So he must have been at
an age where he was able to look
after
Ismail Ibn Kathir.
And at the age of 7, he traveled
with him to Damascus. And Damascus at the
time was one of those places where knowledge
was, you know,
pouring out of it. It was a place
where people would go and they would study
and they would learn as we'll as we'll
get to inshallah.
And his brother
was
his teacher and remained his teacher for a
very long period of time. So he continued
to learn from his brother,
even though he was his brother, okay, he
still continued to learn and benefit from him,
which again shows us how much knowledge Abdul
Wahab himself must have had, and he continued
to learn from him until he died in
the year 750 Hijri. So Abdul
Wahab passed away in the year 750 Hijri,
which shows us how long he was with
him and how much he learned from him
and how much he benefited from him. And
this also shows us that,
just because he was his brother, it didn't
mean that he wasn't didn't want to learn
from him and benefit from him. Sometimes, you
know, it's hard for a person to learn
from his siblings.
It's the opposite. You know, you're more competitive
or you don't wanna learn from them because
you don't think they're as knowledgeable or maybe
even, you know, your parents. You need someone
who's a teacher from outside,
you know, from external from an external place
to teach you because you don't take it
seriously. But, again, this shows you the eagerness
of Isma'il ibn Kathir Rahim Allah to learn
and to study. He's even learning from his
own brother up till the year 750 when
Ibn Kathir himself is 50 years old,
and his brother may be about 70, around
that age maybe. So it shows us how
much, he learned from him and how much
he benefited
from him and how much he studied from
him.
He can he started, as we said, from
the age of,
basically as soon as he was old enough
to learn. He was learning from his brother,
Abdul Wahab,
and he started to memorize the Quran at
the age of 6 years old. So this
is when he started to memorize the book
of Allah Azza Wa Jal. And we've seen
this before when we talk about previous scholars.
We always see that the first thing they
do is memorize the Quran. The first thing
they do and the first thing they start
with is the memorization of the Quran, the
book of Allah Azza Wa Jal.
And there's no difference with Imari bin Al
Kathir. He studied and memorized the Quran at
the age of 6 years old, and he
completed the memorization of the Quran by the
age of 11.
So this was the main thing, the first
thing he did. One of the first things
he did was memorize the Quran, and he
completed it in basically 5 years. He memorized
the whole, of the Quran.
And, also,
you know, when we talk about Ibn Kathir,
we generally think of him to be the
mufassir,
you know, because of his tafsir. But he
wasn't just a mufassir. He was also a
historian
because of his famous book, Al Bidaya 1
Ni Haya. And also be
also, he was a faqih.
He was a scholar of fiqh,
Islamic jurisprudence.
And he even he would memorize,
texts in fiqh. He was he followed the
Shafi'i Madhab, and he memorized,
a text in the in in the Shafi'i
in Shafi'i, a fiqh called.
So he actually memorized the whole text, basically,
going through all the different chapters of of
fiqh from purification to the end, and he
he memorizes by heart. And this was the
habit of the scholars of the past. This
is what they would do. They would memorize
texts,
and then
they would always go back to it when
it came to, issues in or in any
other thing. So he was someone who had
memorized,
texts in in in different sciences. He'd memorized
the Quran. He'd memorized texts in,
and, also, he had memorized texts in,
the principles of. So he memorized texts in
Fik, Usul al Fik and also in Hadith.
So they said that he studied with a
teacher, and he he he gained permission
to
basically teach Sahih Muslim,
which shows us,
you know, the emphasis that they will put
on, you know, a Hadith itself. So he
was also a scholar of Hadith.
The the the mafas the other scholars, they
talk about him, and they mentioned that he
was also a scholar of Hadith, not just
a scholar of the Quran specifically. And as
we mentioned, he studied history as well. He
studied history, and, also, he studied Arabic grammar.
So all of these things he studied, and,
also, on top of this, he learned other
sciences,
but these are the ones that I wanted
to mention, basically showing us how wide ranged
he was
and how much he learned and how much
he studied. And this was how it was
in those days. Scholars would be scholars in
multiple fields. They would be experts in multiple
fields. Whereas today, you don't really get that.
Today, it's mostly you know, a person who's
he specializes in something specific, whether it's fiqh
or whether it's hadith or something else. So
this shows us how much emphasis
he he put on learning and memorizing,
especially from a young age. And as we
said, he was in, Dimishk. He was in
Damascus,
and he studied under a famous scholar who
was in Damascus, a scholar of Hadith by
the name of Al Hafiz Al Al Hafiz
Al Mizzi.
Al Hafiz Al Mizzi, who was a famous
scholar from Damascus,
scholar of Hadith, and he was so close
to him, and he he learned so much
from him, benefited so much from him, and
Al Hafid Al Mizzi was so impressed by
him that he married him to his own
daughter.
So he married
Isma'il ibn Kathir
to his own daughter, and his daughter's name
was Zainab. So he married,
Zainab,
and his mother-in-law,
the mother of Zainab,
was someone by the name of Aisha.
And what's interesting is both of these people,
his wife and also his mother-in-law, his wife's
mother, they were both her father of the
Quran. They had both memorized the Quran. And
again, this shows us how
this, you know, this good environment
must have encouraged
both of them to to learn. And also,
that the good pure men are for good
pure women, and this is a good example
of this. And also, another thing which is
mentioned with regards to Zaynab and her mother,
Aissa,
is that they studied under a famous female
scholar.
And this famous this famous female scholar was
known as, her name was Fatima bint Abbas
al Baghdadiya.
Fatima bint Abbas al Baghdadiya,
And she was one of the teachers of
Ibn Uthaimia as well.
So she was one of the teachers of,
Sheikhul Islam, Ibn Uthaimia Rahimahullah, who also lived
around this time, which we'll talk about as
well inshallah.
And he had children also from this marriage.
He had,
he had a child by the name of
Umar and also Abdul Rahman and Mohammed and
Abdul Wahab and Ahmed. So he had children,
from this, marriage,
with, Zaynab.
And as we mentioned, he also studied with,
Sheikh Ol Islam ibn Taymiyyah.
So one of his teachers, one of the
teachers of Ismail ibn Kathir was Sheikh Ol
Islam ibn Taymiyyah
who
had traveled, okay, to in pursuit of knowledge.
And
he had spent time in Damascus,
and he returned in 712
Hijra back to Damascus after traveling in pursuit
of knowledge. So and also other, you know,
jihad and other things. So he came back
he came to Damascus, and he actually came
for the purpose of jihad as well because
there was political instability at the time. So
he came back for the purpose of jihad,
and, obviously, while he was there, he also
benefited people.
And he stayed there until he died in
the year 728
Hijri.
So ibn Taymiyyah
came to Damascus in the year 712,
and he stayed there until his death in
728
Hijri. And this is where Ismail ibn al
Qathir became one of his main students.
One of his main one of the main
students of ibn Taymiyyah Rahimahullah was ibn al
Kathir. And that's why the scholars say that
to the extent that when,
ibn Taymiyyah would be punished or would be
tortured or he'd be persecuted or he'd be
imprisoned
because of some of his some of his
views and because of the oppression of the
leaders at the time. Ibn Kathir would also
suffer because of his closeness with Ibn Taymiyyah.
Okay? And this also shows us his loyalty
and shows us how much how much support
he had for Ibn Taymiyyah. He wouldn't back
out in in times of difficulty, in times
of crisis. He would always stick with Ibn
Taymiyyah. So when he was punished, even Ibn
Kati was also punished. When he was jailed,
he would also be jailed. So this shows
us how close he was to Ibn Taymiyyah
Rahimahullah,
and he studied fiqh from Ibn Taymiyyah as
well.
He studied fiqh from Ibn Taymiyyah even though
Ibn Taymiyyah Rahimahullah was someone who was a
student of the Hambal Ifiq.
He was a student of Hambal Ifiq specifically,
and we mentioned Isma'il ibn Kathir Rahimahullah was
a student of Shafi'i fiqh. And this shows
us that there was no issue between,
any students real students of knowledge in studying
different Mada'ib and different schools of thought with
regards to fiqh. So he studied fiqh from
Ibn Taymiyyah Rahimahullah even though he was, Hanbalin.
He was from the Muhaqqiqin of the of
the Hanabula, one of those who basically,
did a lot with regards to,
the the the the fiqh of the of
the Hanabula school of thought.
And
he studied, as we mentioned, with his father-in-law,
Al Hafiz Al Mizzi,
and
he wrote,
a book. His father
wrote a book in Hadith
showing, he wrote multiple books in Hadith,
showing his his his knowledge of,
of
narrators of Hadith. And his book was a
famous book called Tadeeb Al Kamal, a famous
book of the narrators of Hadith known as
Tadeeb Al Kamal. His father-in-law was one of
those who wrote is one of those,
scholars who was known for his,
knowledge of,
narrators of Hadith, and he
wrote the book Tadeeb Al Kamal, on the
narrators of Hadith. Also, ibn,
ibn Kathir Rahimahullah,
he studied with Imam Zaha'abi,
the famous Imam Zaha'abi,
who,
wrote,
numerous books. 1 of the famous books is
the book on history, Sir Al Aminobullah,
the
lives of the
noble,
lives of the noble people,
of of of the world. And he studied
with Imam Zahaibi,
and Imam Zahaibi was also a scholar of
hadith.
So we sometimes we think of Imam Dzahabi,
as a historian, as someone who's read books
on history, but he was also a scholar
of Hadith, and he died in 748
hijrah. So we can see Imam Ibn Kathir
Rahimahullah,
he studied with all of these scholars
from of different sciences,
and so he learned from them and benefited
from them.
And as we mentioned, he memorized the Quran,
and also he taught a hadith.
So he was a scholar of Hadith as
well. Ibn Kathir Rahimahullah
was a scholar of Hadith.
And
it said that
there was a time
when
the the leader at the time
ordered
that there would
be a class taking place in Damascus in
the main masjid in Damascus, which was known
as, Al Jamiatul Umawi.
It's it's one of the biggest masajid
in Syria. I don't know if it's still
around today.
Anybody know?
I don't know. But Allah. And by some
one of the biggest masajid in Syria in
Damascus today.
And
Ibn Kathir Rahimahullah was basically given permission. Okay?
Official. It was like an official,
basically, something which was passed by the king
at the time,
that they gave him permission to teach in
Al Jamiatul Umawi in Damascus in the year
767
Hijri.
And so he was given permission to to
teach his tafsir.
And so he wrote his tafsir, and his
tafsir was very popular even before he had,
passed away. Sometimes what happens is a person
passes away, and then a person's books become
famous. But his book became famous even while
he was still alive. People will study it
with him in Damascus, and also people will
study it outside of Damascus
in other parts of the Muslim world. So
he was given permission to teach the his
tafsir, tafsir al Qur'an Adim, tafsir al bin
Kathir in Jamat al Umawi, one of the
biggest masajid in Damascus in the year 768,
767.
And they say people mentioned that
judges and scholars and significant individuals,
famous scholars, would actually go to his class.
On the 1st day when he taught, they
went
and they basically
listened and benefited and learned from Imam Ibn
Kathir Rahimahullah,
which shows us and they say there was
a large number of people. Large number of
people gathered, and they attended the first class
he did where where where he taught the
fseer of Sura Fatiha.
So everyone went, and he basically taught the
fseer of Sura Fatiha on that first day.
And judges and scholars, you know, people who
are scholars in their own right, they all
came benefiting,
from this class. And the leader at the
time, he awarded all of those who attended
with a stipend. He gave them money as
like a
gift. So, again, it shows you, okay, how,
well known Imam Ibn Kathir Rahimahullah was that
there was so much effort being made with
regards to, you know, his his classes and
his teaching.
In the year 763
Hijra,
there's an incident which is mentioned
where the scholars wanted to test his knowledge
with regards to the Arabic language.
He was also a scholar of Arabic language.
He was an expert in Arabic language and
and, Nahu and also poetry as well. So
many of the scholars, they gathered together in
a specific place,
and they invited him, and they wanted to
test him with regards to a specific book.
There's a specific book in Arabic grammar. They
wanted to test his memory and see how
well he knew this book in Arabic grammar.
So each of them, they took one of
the volumes of this book. They took one
of the volumes of this book, and they
basically read out excerpts from this book.
To they read them out to Ibn Kathir,
and they wanted him to carry on and
complete
the the sentences and the paragraphs in this
book. So they would read one of the
ex excerpts from the book, and he would
basically complete it complete it for them. So
each of the scholars will basically mention a
passage in the book, and he would complete
the passage for them. And they said he
would do this for most of the book.
He basically did this except for a small
a few places. Okay?
A few Shawad, a few places which were
unfamiliar.
Okay. Those those passages, he never he he
never read, but the majority of it, he
basically read from memory, which again shows us
his strength
with regards to his to his Arabic language
and, you know, how how well versed he
was,
in in in Nahu and in the the
sciences of the Arabic language. Also, it's mentioned
that at the time,
there was an incident when some of the
people who are from the
were attacked.
There was political instability at the time. And
so some of the Muslims, they attacked people
who are from the Ahludimah. Who are Ahludimah,
those non Muslims who are under the protection
of the Muslims, living under Muslim rule. And
so they attacked these people,
and he basically defended the because
their wealth and things like this were being
threatened and they were going to be taken.
And so he stood up for them and
defended them and said these people are.
It's not allowed for anyone to take their
wealth because they're under the protection of, of
us, of the Muslims. And so this shows
us how he always stood up for for
justice and even the people who went, Muslim,
the people of.
Also, it's mentioned
that there was an opponent of Ibn Taymiyyah
Rahimahullah.
There was someone who was basically an opponent,
an enemy of Ibn Taymiyyah from the scholars.
His name was As Subbuqi, Imam As Subbuqi.
And this person was basically an opponent of
ibn Taymiyyah. He would always,
you know, attack ibn Taymiyyah with regards to
his views. Because ibn Taymiyyah, there were scholars
who supported him, but at the time, there
were also scholars who were against him. And
so they would cause difficulties for him, and
that's why he would become imprisoned and he
would be, persecuted and tortured because of those
because of some of those scholars. So Imam
Mas Subiki was one of those who was
an opponent of Ibn Taymiyyah
and an incident took place where Subiki
ended up being falsely accused himself.
So he himself became falsely accused of taking
the wealth of the orphan,
And so he he was basically
put to trial, and they basically accused him
of taking the wealth of orphans. Ibn Kathir
basically stood up and defended Imam Masuki
even though he was an opponent of his
main teacher, Ibn Taymiyyah Rahimahullah.
Even though he was an opponent of of
his of his teacher, he still stood up
and defended Imam al Suki.
And he he demanded evidence to be shown
to show that he took the wealth of
an orphan, and eventually, Imam al Subqi was
basically,
he was found to be innocent of these
accusations which were thrown at him. And, again,
this shows you his justice, that even though
there was someone who was an opponent to
his teacher, at the end of the
day, justice had to has to prevail. So
if someone is an enemy to you, if
he does something which he's accused of or
he's someone says that he's done something
specific and he's accused of something, unless it
can be proven, that person should be defended
because it's a false accusation regardless of its
of of whether it's your enemy, or not.
So and, also, it's mentioned that he he
would praise Imam Al Suki, and he would
praise,
his knowledge. He would praise the fact that
he would, have a a a a an
excellent way of teaching, you know, and his
classes were very beneficial.
Again, showing us the other and the manners
Imam Ibn Kathir Rahimahullah had with regards to,
you with regards to,
you know, those who are knowledgeable, the scholars,
and,
the the teachers and people who taught the
the the the general layman even though they
may have been enemies to to to him
maybe him or his teachers.
We we mentioned before that he also supported
Ibn Taymiyyah Rahimahullah
to
the extent that he would have been imprisoned
alongside Ibn Taymiyyah. And other scholars at the
time were also,
the students of Ibn Taymiyyah who supported him
and were also,
they went through hardships because of this. And
from them was Imam al Zahabi, we mentioned
before. Imam al Zahabi, Rahimahullah, and also Ibn
Al Qayyim, the famous
student of Ibn Taymiyyah Rahimah Rahimahullah.
These students were also supportive of Ibn Taymiyyah
Rahimahullah.
From his students from the students of Ibn
Kathir Rahimahullah,
he had many students, but from some of
the students that maybe we might be familiar
with is a student by the name of
Al Jazari. And Al Jazari,
was an expert on the Quran itself.
So he wrote many books on the sciences
of the Quran, and he wrote a book
on,
Qira'at,
which was known
as,
So talking about the different
and modes of recitation,
of the in Islam of the Quran specifically,
Al Jazari, one of the students of Ibn
Kathir Rahimahullah. And Ibi Kathir, he was a
student of the Quran as well. Also in
print Quran, that's why when you read the,
you notice that sometimes he mentions different modes
of recitation,
and different ways that that ayah may be
recited. Also from his from his students was
someone by the name of Zirkashi,
and Zirkashi
was someone who specialized in Usul al Fikkh,
and he wrote a book in Usul known
as al Bahrul Muhid.
So he's also a famous scholar,
Azar Kashy, who was known to be an
expert in Usul. And again, all these things
show us the knowledge of Ibn Kathir,
the fact that he had students from different
sciences, and he was able to teach,
students, with regards to specific sciences.
So this was Ibn Kathir, and
Ibn Kathir himself, he wrote many books. Ibn
Kathir himself, he wrote many books. They say
approximately 20 books he wrote.
And from the most famous of them is
Tafsir Quran Adi,
or otherwise known as Tafsir Ibn Kathir. And
also he
wrote stories of the prophets, and many of
these have been translated.
Al Bidaya when he hired the famous book
on history, the beginning and the end, starting
from the the the time when Adam, alayhi
salam, was created all the way up to
his time,
and then the day of judgement signs of
the day of judgement and day of judgement
itself. So it's a book called from the
beginning to the end.
Also, he wrote a book called,
signs of the day of judgement.
Signs of the day of judgment has also
been translated.
He wrote a book on the virtues of
the Quran. He wrote a book on Sira
of the messenger of Allahu SAW. He wrote
a book on the life of Aesha, alaihis
salam,
the life of Khalid and Waleed. He wrote
a book on.
So he wrote many books on different
sciences, on different topics, on different subjects. He
also wrote books in Hadith, wrote books in,
he wrote a book on the Musnat of
Umar Radiallahu An.
So all the Hadith
narrated by Umar radiolahu an. And he wrote
a book in
in fiqh as well. So he mentioned that
he studied,
fiqh when he was younger. He studied he
studied the book of the Tanbi, and he
memorized the whole, text of this book called
Tanbi in Shafi'i I fiqh.
And they say he actually wrote,
a book on a. He wrote a book
based on the book which he had memorized,
on.
We're ready to the book which he had
memorized. And his teacher, when he saw it,
he was very impressed by the book which
he wrote,
explaining the the book, in fiqh called.
So he wrote many different books on different
sciences, and many of these,
have been translated into the English language. Even
the one he has a book on the
life of, which I just saw before I
came. It's been translated.
I'm not sure how good the translation is
or how good the book is itself in
terms of
accuracy, but it has been translated also, I
think, the the the book of Khalid alaihis
salam,
does anybody
know does anyone know anything about these books?
So life of Isa, alaihis salam, life of
Khaleb Nuwaleed. They have been translated, but I
don't know how how how good the translations
are. So these are some of the books
which he wrote.
And towards the end of his life,
he basically lost his eyesight.
Towards the end of his life, in the
year
768 hijra,
he started to lose his eyesight until he
lost it completely.
And they say the reason for this, first
of all, was because of the excessive reading
and writing that he would do. So he
would read a lot. So his his his
eyesight became weaker, but he continued to read.
And this is I think that that they
say that if a person has weak eyes,
that he should rest his eyes, not use
his eyes and strain his eyes as much.
But, obviously, he he because of his thirst
of knowledge,
even at this age, 68 years old, you
know, he's still studying, he's still learning, he's
still benefiting.
And they say he was fully healthy until
he died. And he he wasn't he didn't
become very ill or very weak or, you
know, didn't have any type of severe illness
which caused him to stop teaching. He basically
continued teaching right up up until the point,
where he passed away. So he lost his
eyesight in the year 768
Hijra until he basically passed away because of
excessive reading and writing and using his eyesight
to learn and to benefit himself and then
to teach others. And also as a test
from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
You know Allah Azzawajal tests people and the
more Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala loves someone, the
more he test them. And one of the
ways a pass Allah's a person test a
person is tested by Allah
is by taking away some of the things
which he's been given and
things which Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has blessed
him with. And so from those is, the
eyesight. And this is why there's a hadith
which is mentioned in,
in Sahih Bukhari, if I'm not mistaken, where
the messenger of Allah is to be a
Muslim, he said,
That
if I test my slave
with the 2 things which he loves
and then he's patient over it, I will
substitute them
for Jannah.
What are those 2 things?
The 2 eyes.
The 2 eyes. So Allah
says that I test if I test my
slave with the 2 things he desires and
or the 2 things he loves and is
patient over it, then I will substitute those
2 things with paradise itself.
So this shows us, first of all,
the the
the thing which is beloved to many of
us or all of us, the eyesight.
You know, because it's the eyesight which causes
us to love things in the first place.
You know, when we see things, we either
we either like them or we dislike them.
You know, people we see, our our spouses,
for example, things that we enjoy from food
or from clothing or from colors or from
cars or whatever it might be. You know,
that the eyes themselves are the things which
cause a person to love certain things or
the opposite to dislike certain things. And so
Allah
here in his hadith Qudsi is talking about
how these two things
are. You know, the 2 beloved things which
the individual
loves. So if they're taken away and he's
patient, he shows patience.
And patience here, you know, is when a
when a person is satisfied with the decree
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, doesn't
complain about,
his situation,
and he's patient with whatever calamities, befall him.
I will substitute those two things with paradise
itself. So you see the immense reward of
someone who's been who's lost his eyesight. So,
you know, people who don't have the ability,
they don't have the gift of eyesight, Allah
takes it from them. Those people,
you know, if they have patience, Allah
will reward them for their patience with paradise
itself.
So ibn Kathir, he lost his eyesight towards
the end of his life in the year
768 hijra,
and he died on a Thursday
in the month of Sha'aban
in the year
774
hijra.
In the year 774
Hijra,
in the month of Shaaban, he died on
a Thursday. So he was around 7074
years old, 73,
74
years old, and this is the life of
Ibn Kathir Rahimahullah.
And as we mentioned,
Ibn Kathir plays a pivotal role in tafsir
because one of the most famous books of
tafsir is tafsir.
It's his book on tafsir, and it's known
worldwide, translated into so many languages.
And this book, you know, Allah
has blessed this book,
and, you know, people who maybe don't know
that much about, you know, Islam or or
or Islamic books, they'll know about specific books.
They'll know about Sahih Bukhari. You know? They'll
know about Sahih Muslim, and they'll know about
Tafsir ibn Kathir. It's one of those things
where a person will know about some of
these books. From them is this book, Tafsir
ibn Kathir.
And
Ibn Kathir himself,
we know that he was someone who put
a lot of emphasis on the sciences of
the Quran. You know, he memorized the Quran
when he was young. At the age of
6, he started memorizing Quran. By the age
of 11, he had completed the memorization of
the Quran itself. You know? So this shows
us how much interest he had in the
Quran itself. And we mentioned that he had
students who basically wrote books on,
you know, and they were experts in sciences
of the Quran. So it shows how much
knowledge he had with regards to, the sciences
of the Quran.
And tafsir is one of those subjects
which it can be said, it can be
argued that it's one of the one of
the most it's the most important subject,
and it covers everything
because it covers the Quran itself,
and the Quran itself
covers
multiple sciences.
Because the Quran it covers for example, Tawhid,
Aqidah.
The Quran itself covers,
you know, Arabic language. The Quran covers Fiqh.
So when a a scholar writes on the
on on tafsir, and he he he writes
the tafsir of the Quran, you're dealing with
all of these issues. You're dealing with issues
related to fiqh. You're dealing with with issues
related to,
you know, Aqidah itself.
Issues related to Arabic grammar, for example. That's
why when you, study certain books of Arabic
grammar,
okay,
you'll find, for example, Alfa Islamic or other
books, they'll have examples in there of certain
grammatical rules, and they'll use ayaat ayaat from
the Quran itself.
They'll use them as examples. So for example,
when a person studies English, they have sentences,
you know, as examples. In Arabic, when they
give examples, they give examples from the Quran
because the Quran is perfect.
Quran is perfect. You know, there's no mistakes
in the Quran, so it's used as a
textbook when a person learns the Arabic language.
So this is this shows us the beauty
of tafsir itself or the beauty of the
Quran. When a person dows in and
he writes,
things on tafsir or he teaches tafsir, he's
dealing with one of the most beautiful and
one of the best subjects in the world.
You know?
One of the best subjects ever because it's
dealing with the speech of Allah Azzawajal. You're
dealing with the the Quran, the the speech
of Allah, the kalam of Allah. And so,
you know, it covers,
many different topics.
And as we said, ibn Kathir Rahimahullah,
he's showing this interest from a young age
with regards to the Quran,
and he's memorized Quran, and he's learning the
different sciences of the Quran.
And when we talk about tafsir itself,
there's,
a number of ways in which tafsir
are basically,
written
or are taught. So you have tafsir which
is based on transmission,
or it's called tafsir bil matur
or tafsir bil ribaya.
Okay. Tafsir based on transmission. And this type
of tafsir is when you basically teach tafsir
and you you explain
ayat
with other ayats,
or you base,
and you explain ayat, if not by the
Quran, then by a Hadith.
So Quran, Quran.
Explain explaining the the ayat of the Quran
with the Quran itself,
or explaining ayat of the Quran with a
Hadith, or explaining ayat of the Quran with
the sayings of the companions,
or explaining ayat to the of the Quran
with the sayings of the.
So this is one type of tafsir, okay,
which the scholars would delve into, and they
would teach and they would write,
and and they would write in in this
in in based on this type of, tafasir
and this type of, way of teaching tafasir,
tafasir of the Quran. And from the scholars
who basically,
wrote,
tafasir based on this style of, of of
teaching tafsir,
for example, Imam Tabari
one of the earliest scholars of tafsir.
What the the the the oldest tafsir we
have is basically tafsir of Tabari. So he
was one who wrote tafsir based on,
tafsir by
transmission. Also, Imam al Baghabi Rahimahullah. And also
Ibn Kathir. So when you read,
okay, you'll see that this is normally
generally how he explains aat. So he'll mention
other aat which explain that aya which is
doing the tafsir of, And then he will
mention a hadith, and then he will mention
the sayings of the companions, sayings of the
Tabi'in. That's why you'll find many times he'll
mention sayings of Tabi'in, Mujahid, Ekrim, and others
other scholars of tafsir. You know, he'll mention
these names. And also he'll mention,
also Israel Yat.
He also mentioned, that as well. So these
are some examples of, books,
based on tafsir bil Mathur. The other type
of tafsir is based on opinion, tafsir berai.
Tafsir.
So this type of tafsir is when the
Quran is is is explained
through the Arabic word itself. So they look
for the they look at the Arabic word,
which is mentioned in the Quran in that
ayah, and they try to understand what that
ayah
what that word actually means in the Arabic
language and
explain
that ayah going back to the Arabic language
itself. Or they'll use terminologies.
Okay. Certain terminologies which are mentioned, sayings of
the Arabs.
So what the Arabs said with regards to,
the language used in the Quran, the purpose
of revelation,
why those ayats were revealed, and then explain
those ayats based on how or why it
was revealed.
And these types of are also
around, for example, tafsir al razi and tafsir
al makhsari. So this is another type of
tafsir which is also
around today.
And with regards to Ibn Kathir
and his tafsir,
how did he
how did
he write his tafsir? What method did he
use? How did he
why is his book so successful? Why is
his book so popular? And what did he
do that was so different to the other
books of tafsir,
which made his book being translated into so
many different languages, and it's one of the
most popular books of tafsir. Even though you
have so many books of tafsir which have
been written. First of all, as we mentioned,
he would write the fasir, and he would
explain the ayah with another ayah, or he
would explain with a hadith if there was
no ayah to explain that ayah. And then
he would explain it with statements of the
companions or the and then the, Israel. And
with regards to this methodology, you know, he
never did anything which was
different, alternative.
He never did any he didn't do anything,
you know, innovative with regards to how he
wrote his tafsir.
But one of the things they say with
regards to Ibn Kathir
is that
he was known as Mufasirun
Naqal.
And Naqal means someone who's an expert of
transmission.
So whenever he would mention something in his
tafsir,
they were
things which were,
you know,
he he had a he had a an
an eye for detail,
and he had a very, very accurate memory,
a very strong memory. So things which he
would write, he would have heard them and
he would have recorded them exactly how he
heard them. So narrations and a haveith which
he had heard, which he had memorized, sayings
of the companions, sayings of the Tabi'in.
So because of his accuracy,
because he was so good at memorizing and
and he was very clear with regards to
the things he had memorized, and he wouldn't
make any,
you know, major errors with regards to what
he had memorized.
Because of this, the things in his book
were accurate.
And he was very, very specific and detailed
with regards to, you know, the the the
narrations which he records in them. And this
is one of the reasons why his book
is so successful, why his book is so
popular. And also, you know, without a shadow
of a doubt, because of his intention.
You know, a person is blessed with regards
to his good deeds because of a person's
intention. When a person has a sincere intention,
then Allah blesses that individual's work. And this
is why,
when he wrote his, there were many other
people who wrote after him, the famous.
And so we said whatever was for Allah
will stay, whatever was for other than Allah,
then they won't be around anymore. And that's
why today we only have 1 Mu'ata. When
a person says Mu'ata, we all know it's
Mu'ata.
So it shows us the importance of sincerity
itself. Also, on top of this, he would
also mention fiqi issues.
So sometimes in some ayaat, if he was
related to fiqi, he would mention the fiqi
issues attached to those ayaats. For example, ayaat
referring to wudu or referring to salah. He
would mention some
some some fiqi issues in those specific ayats.
Also, linguistic benefits, he would also mention.
So he would mention, you know, benefits in
Arabic grammar,
benefits in in the Arabic language
and, you know, morphology and poetry, he would
also mention in his books,
in in in the ayat,
of the in some ayat of the Quran.
So this all shows us how it's something
which his tafsir covers a little bit of
everything.
Whereas other tafasir,
you know, they'll cover specific things. You'll have
some which are based purely on opinion. An
opinion can be good and it can be
bad. A person, if he doesn't base his
opinions on the Quran and the sunnah, then
he'll fall short. And others, for example, they'll
base it purely on a hadith,
or they'll they'll have a an Arabic grammar
explanation of the Quran,
just the Arabic grammar and the nuances and
the miracles of the of the Arabic language
that they'll,
basically focus on with regards to that of
seer. Whereas,
he tried to have a bit of everything,
and he excelled and he he he was
successful in this because his book is one
of the most successful successful books. And the
English book we have, which is translated, is
actually not a complete thing.
The tafsir bin Kathir we have in the
English language is not the complete tafsir bin
Kathir. It's the abridged format. It's the abridged
form of his tafsir. So it's not the
actual complete tafsir. They've taken things out of
it, but it's still a very good tafsir,
tafsir,
in the English language, probably the best because
it is based on, the tafsir of Ibn
Kathir. It's just summarized and abridged.
So all of these things, they show us
how
his methodology
in writing the book,
on Tafsir,
was successful and how he tried to cover
as many different sciences as he could, but
also in a in a simp in a
simple form. So he wasn't very he didn't
go into too much detail with regards to
one specific issue. You know, he always tried
to keep it simple and easy to read
and also tried to cover many different topics,
and, also, he depended on other books.
So he depended primarily on Tafsir Tabari.
So Tafsir Tabari was one of his primary
references when he was writing Ibn Kathir, and
this is why you'll see that even, when
you read Tafsir Tabari,
he has the same kind of method. He'll
mention
explanation of the ayah with other ayah, the
seed of the ayah with other ayah, the
seed of the ayah with a Hadith, and
then within of the sayings of the companions
and so on and so forth. And does
a similar thing.
And sometimes you'll find that,
things which Ibn Kathir mentions in his of
a specific are similar to those things which
have been, Imam mentions in his. So there's
a lot of things which he took from
Imam Abdul Rahimahullah,
and also,
he took a lot of things from.
So a lot of the things which mentions
with regards to,
okay, and the things which he learned from,
he also put them in his book of
tafsir. So many of the things which I
mentioned,
the the the origin and basis of them
will be views which Ibn Taymiyyah himself held.
And we mentioned that he was known as
Mufasir al Nakal.
He was a Mufasir, which is he was
an and he was an expert Naqal, an
expert of transmission,
okay, which was one of the reasons why
his book was so successful
and so popular.
And Allah basically blessed,
blessed him through, this book and through his
other books. And scholars, they also testified to
the greatness of this book.
You know, scholars, they've mentioned and they've talked
about how
the you know, how how great his book
is, and they praised,
his tafsir,
tafsir ibn al kathir. And his reputation is
also something which,
the scholars they talk about and the scholars
mention. Many of the scholars of the past,
they will talk about,
they will talk about him. And in fact,
there's a story which is mentioned that a
man came from Khorasan. Khorasan is basically in
Iran, modern day Iran. So he traveled from
Khorasan,
from Iran all the way to Damascus just
to learn from Ibn Kathir. And he said
to Ibn Kathir that we we were studying
one of your books in Khorasan.
So one of the books that you wrote,
we were studying it. I think it was
a book in Arabic language. I'm not sure.
So he would they said we were studying
we we we study your book in in
Khorasan, and I came just to basically get
Ijazah permission from you and learn this book
directly from you so I can teach it
to others.
So this shows us how his his books,
even while he was still alive, were basically
being,
studied, and they were being people were benefiting
from them,
You know,
so much,
emphasis was were put on his books. Even
during his lifetime, people were studying them in,
you know, parts of of the Muslim world
such as, Iran and other places.
And as we mentioned, the scholars themselves, they
would praise, imam, even, ibn Kathir Rahimahullah.
Imam Dzahabi, for example,
he talks about ibn Kathir,
and he calls him a faqih. He calls
him a mufti, and he calls him a
muhadith.
You know, he he calls him,
Al Muhadith,
Lil Faba'il,
someone who's got loads of virtues.
You know, someone who's has so many virtues.
The
pillar of the deen. And this is Imam
Al Zahabi praising and talking about,
Ibn Kathir Rahimahullah,
and he calls him,
a Mufassir as well. So all of these
things,
he he he all these these these what
these these,
you know, honorable mentions,
which Imam Al Zahabi himself,
says with regards to Ibn Kathir.
Other scholars also, they talked about him.
From them
was, Ibn Hazr al Askalani. Ibn Hazr al
Askalani, he also praised
Ibn Kathir Rahimahullah.
He said that his,
he was someone who had a very good
sense of humor.
So the from the from his characteristics was
he was someone who had a good sense
of humor. He wasn't always serious. He would
crack jokes, and he would have a it
was good to be around people who would,
be, you know, be that that that have
a good laugh with him, basically, which shows
us that he was someone who wasn't always
serious. He also had a good sense of
humor, and this is something which also is
from the etiquette of a Muslim, that a
person isn't always serious, but he sometimes also
jokes as long as those jokes are within
the limits of, of Islam itself. So these
are some of the praise
the the the the the the the the
the the the the the things which the
scholars,
said with regards to Ibn Kathir Rahimahullah,
and
they praised,
his knowledge, and they praised,
you know, his his tafasir
and the fact that he was someone who
would teach and he would benefit the people.
And as we mentioned, he taught until basically
he passed away. So he was someone who,
you know, kept on teaching, kept on benefiting
the people until an old age. So this
is the life of Ibn Kathir Rahimahullah.
And,
inshallah,
if there's any questions, then I'll do my
best to answer them.
So nothing is mentioned in regards to any
specific way. It must have been just because
of old age, a natural kind of death.
Nothing specific is mentioned.
They say she was a teacher of Ibn
Taymiyyah. Ibn Taymiyyah.
Yeah.
Yeah. So his his wife and his wife's
mother.
So his wife was Zainab,
and his wife's mother's name was Aisha.
And so,
Fatima
was,
the teacher of his wife and his wife's
mother. She taught them Quran.
She taught them Quran, basically.
What was this, Konya? Who
remembers?
Abulfada.
Abulfada.