Report on a Thesis Titled: "The Sahabah's (May Allah be pleased with them) Citations of Quranic Verses from Surat Al-Fatihah to the end of Surat Al-An'am: A Collection and Study"

Abstract

This study examines the practice of the Prophet's Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) of citing Quranic verses in their transmitted reports (athar), covering the chapters from Surat Al-Fatiha to the end of Surat Al-An'am, through a comprehensive collection and foundational analytical study. The significance of the study stems from the fact that the Companions' exegesis constitutes the third primary source in the science of Quranic interpretation; however, this particular mode of interpretation — namely, the citation of verses within transmitted reports — has not received sufficient attention in specialized scholarly literature. The study aimed to collect and isolate these reports for dedicated research, highlight the Companions' heritage of Quranic citation, clarify the correct methodology for deriving Quranic meanings, and elucidate scholarly approaches to utilizing the Companions' statements for exegetical purposes. The study adopted an inductive methodology by systematically surveying works of transmitted exegesis, including the commentaries of Ibn Jarir, Ibn Abi Hatim, Ibn al-Mundhir, Al-Baghawi, Ibn Kathir, and Al-Suyuti's Al-Durr Al-Manthur, with a requirement that chains of transmission be sound or good. The study reached several key findings: it examined 123 transmitted reports attributed to 23 Companions, with Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him) being the most prolific in Quranic citation at 48 instances, followed by Ibn Mas'ud at 17, and Ibn Umar at 10. The study further demonstrated that the Companions' exegesis ranges from the explicitly clear to the inferential, requiring the application of legal principles for derivation; that reports clarifying Quranic vocabulary typically do so based on Quranic usage rather than purely linguistic definitions; and that the exegetes' methodology in applying principles of legal theory is broader than that of the jurists, as they apply these rules across all verses, not merely the legal ones.