Imām Abu Ja'far Muhammad Ibn Jarīr At-Tabarī

Imām Abu Ja'far Muhammad Ibn Jarir Al-Tabari was born in the year 224 A.H. in Tabaristan and he passed away in the year 310 A.H. in Baghdad
.
He memorised the Quraan at the age of 7 and began gathering Ahadith at the age of 9! His travels in search of knowledge began after managing to persuade his father into allowing him to do so at the mere age of 12!
He travelled through the Islamic world in search of knowledge and went to various towns and villages of Khurasan, Iraq, Syria and Egypt. He later settled in Baghdad and remained there till his demise.
While on sojourn, he encountered a lot of poverty and financial difficulty. He once had to sell the sleeves of his shirt to buy food because the money that was being sent by his father was delayed. He also experienced extreme poverty while he was in Egypt in the year 256 A.H.
His student, Imām Abu Bakr Ahmad Ibn Kāmil (رحمه الله) relates that he once said, " I memorised the Quraan when I was 7 years old, I led the people in salaah when I was 8 and I began writing Ahadith at the age of 9.
My father once saw in a dream that I was in front of Rasulullah (Sallalahu 'alaihi wa sallam) with a bag filled with stones and I was throwing the stones away. An interpreter told him that when I grow up I would assist and protect the Dīn of Allah. Hence my father was of great assistance to me in my studies although I was young."
He further states: "We were studying under Imām Muhammad Ibn Humaid Al-Rāzi (رحمه الله) in the town of Ray. During the day we used to go to Imām Ahmad Ibn Hammād Al-Dulabi (رحمه الله) who used to live in a village far away from Ray. After his lesson, we would run like possessed men to acquire the lesson of Imām Muhammad Ibn Humaid Al-Razi (رحمه الله)."
It is said that Imām Ibn Jarir wrote more than 100 000 Ahadith from Imām Muhammad Ibn Humaid Al-Razi (رحمه الله) alone.
He also went to Kufah where he met several Muhaddithīn. From amongst them was Imām Abu Kuraib Muhammad Ibnul 'Alā Al-Hamdānī (رحمه الله) who had a very stern temperament.
He says: "Once when I went to the house of Imām Abu Kuraib (رحمه الله) with the Ashābul Hadith (students of Hadith), he peeped through a hole and saw the Ashābul Hadith crowded at his door so he asked : "Which of you have memorised all that he has written from me thus far?"
They began to look at each other. They then turned to me and asked if I knew all those Ahadith by heart? I replied in the affirmative. They then informed him. Upon his enquiry, I said: “You narrated this (Hadith) to us on a certain day and that (Hadith) on another day and so on…”
Imām Abu Kuraib (رحمه الله) realized his potential and asked him to come in. Thus the others used to get a chance to listen to the lesson due to him!

Imām Ibn Jarir (رحمه الله) shunned the worldly affairs. He was an expert in every field. He was a Qāri who knew nothing else but Quraan, and a Muhaddith who knew nothing else but hadith and so on…

He was also one who would mix with people. He would attend any invitation or walimah upon being invited. He would also join his companions and go to the fields to have a meal, but when he used to be at home, nobody would disturb him except under dire circumstances due to him being occupied with compiling his knowledge.
Abul-Qaasim Ibn 'Aqil Al-Warraq ( (رحمه الله) says: " Imām Ibn Jarir (رحمه الله) once said to his students: “Are you'll ready to write down my lesson on the Tafsir (commentary) of the entire Holy Quraan"? They enquired as to how lengthy it would be. "30 000 pages"! he replied. They said: "This would take a long time and cannot be completed in one lifetime. He therefore made it concise and kept it to 3000 pages. It took him 7 years to finish it from the year 283 till 290.
He then said to them: "Are you'll ready for a book on the history of the world, from Adam (a.s.) till this day?" They asked as to how lengthy this one would be, and he replied in a similar manner to what he had said regarding his Tafsir. They contested as they had to the previous request. He then said: “Inna Lillah!! Enthusiasm has been destroyed!”

Imām Abu Haamid Ahmad Ibn Muhammad Al-Isfarayini (رحمه الله) said : " If someone had to travel all the way to China just to acquire the tafsir of Imām Ibn Jarir (رحمه الله) it would be very much worth the trip!"


Imām Abu Bakr Ibn Khuzaimah (رحمه الله) said : " I have read his Tafsir from beginning to end and I do not know anyone on the face of this earth who is more learned than him.


Imām al-Simsimi (رحمه الله) says: Imam Ibn Jarir (رحمه الله) used to write 40 pages every day for 40 years!!

Some of his students had counted the number of days he lived from the time he became baaligh (mature) till the day he passed away, and they divided it by the number of pages that he wrote which effectively meant that he would have written 14 pages a day every day!!!

He is reported to have said :

" ما حللت إزاري على حلال ولا حرام قط "

In other words: He had devoted his entire life for the "assistance and protection of the Deen of Allah"
(as seen by his father in the dream…)
This means that he did not get married all his life.
This great Imām ((رحمه الله who was also a mujtahid passed away in Baghdad in the year 310 A.H..

May Allah Ta'ala fill his grave with noor (divine light) and may He grant us the ability to take maximum benefit from this great Mujtahid's books. Ameen.


Among the lessons to be learnt from the life of this illustrious Imām are:


 The sublimity of his courage that he was prepared to write a book that would take an entire lifetime to compile.

 His value for time which enabled him to compile so much of knowledge.
 The age at which he commenced his quest for Islamic knowledge and his thirst whereby he had mastered practically all the fields of the knowledge of deen.
 The assistance that his father had offered him in the path of knowledge.

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