Tanwīr al-miqbās min tafsīr Ibn ʿAbbās, by attributed to ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbbās; compiled by Majd al-Dīn al-Fīrūzābādī (d. compiler d. 817 AH / 1414 CE). A running gloss, phrase by phrase, transmitted under the name of the Prophet’s cousin Ibn ʿAbbās through a chain (al-Kalbī from Abū Ṣāliḥ) that Muslim scholars have long judged weak; it is read as a witness to early Kufan exegesis rather than as Ibn ʿAbbās’s own words.
The complete commentary on Compassion, mercy and monasticism (57:27), covering 57:27.
On 57:27
57:27. Then We caused to follow in their footsteps: We sent following and in succession, after Noah and Abraham, among their descendants; Our messengers: one upon the track of another; and We caused to follow in their footsteps: We sent following and in succession, after these messengers, other than Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him); Jesus son of Mary, and We gave him: We bestowed upon him; the Gospel, and We placed in the hearts of those who followed him: who followed the religion of Jesus; compassion: tenderness and kindness, each of them inclining in kindness towards the other; and mercy: each of them showing mercy to the other; and monasticism, which they innovated: they prepared for it the hermitages and the monasteries, so as to live as monks therein and to escape the trial of Paul the Jew; We did not prescribe it for them: We did not make monasticism obligatory for them; except seeking the good pleasure of God: except the seeking of God’s good pleasure; and it is said: they innovated it only seeking the good pleasure of God; We did not prescribe it for them, that is, We did not make monasticism obligatory for them, and had We made monasticism obligatory for them, they did not observe it: they did not keep monasticism; with its due observance: with its due keeping; so We gave: so We bestowed upon; those of them who believed: of the monks; their reward: their recompense, twice over, for faith and worship; and they are those who did not depart from the religion of Jesus son of Mary; and there remained of them twenty-four men among the people of Yemen, who came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), believed in him and entered his religion; but many of them: of the monks; are rebellious: unbelievers, and they are those who departed from the religion of Jesus.
About this text
This is a complete English rendering of Tanwīr al-miqbās min tafsīr Ibn ʿAbbās on these verses, prepared for this website from the public-domain Arabic text (shamela.ws, book 12877). Nothing is abridged: every opinion, every report with its chain of transmission, every verse of poetry and every grammatical note is translated. Qur’anic quotations are in bold; the translator’s own notes are confined to the numbered footnotes and identify names, terms and variant readings only. A second translator has not checked the rendering, and the Arabic is linked so that any passage can be compared. The modern editors’ apparatus is not part of the classical text and is not translated.
Compassion, mercy and monasticism (57:27): all commentaries · The classical commentaries