ابن عباس
Ibn ʿAbbās
Person
A cousin of the Prophet (d. around 687) who became one of the great early scholars of Quranic interpretation.
What it means
Abdullah ibn Abbas was born in Mecca about three years before the Hijra and was a boy when the Prophet died. He asked the older Companions about the Quran and its background, and was called “the interpreter of the Quran”. It is reported that the Prophet prayed: “O God, give him understanding of the religion” (Sahih al-Bukhari). He died in Taif.
What the sources say
Much commentary is attributed to him, and scholars sort reports by their chain of narrators: some are firmly established and some are doubtful, so later works that bear his name are not all his.