Questions on Asbab-un-nuzool from tonight's class

[browns]

Assalamu 'alaikum

Jazakallahu khair Ustadh Suhail for tonight's session. It was a valuable reminder for me about the care that must go into deriving meanings from ayaat of the Qur'an.

I have two followup questions:

1) Does the understanding of an ayah necessarily have to come from the Sahabah? Or just the narration of the sabab for that ayah?

Building on that, can there be a multiplicity of interpretations for a single ayah? If so, what is the arbitration process for judging this?

2) We went over 3 categories of applicability for an ayah: the specific circumstance agrees with the general rule, the ayah only applies to that circumstance, and the sabab is specific but the meaning is general.

My question is when we don't have sabab information, how does one determine the applicability of an ayah? Simply by looking at the majority of the classical mufassireen?

I ask because I notice two extremes today: one group tries to specialize way too many verses and another group strips away all context. How does one do this in an intelligent manner that is in keeping with the will of Allah?

[Suhail Mulla]

Wa Alaika Assalam Wa Rahmatullah,

answers to your excellent ?s:

1) The understanding of an ayah does NOT necessarily come from the Sahabah. They held their opinions re: certain ayahs and sometimes they even differed about the tafseer of certain ayaat. Indeed, those with the greatest understanding of the Qur'an and its' tafseer were the Sahaba (RA). However, at the same time, their understanding of any particular ayah is only binding upon us if that understanding is a direct transmission of the Prophet's (SAW) explanation of an ayah.
And, conversely, yes, it is the narrations of the asbab un-nuzul that MUST come from the Sahaba.

2) This is a fantastic and very loaded question! This is an answer that can not be answered in a few lines. In shaa' Allah, we will do our best to answer this in a whole class session re: "The Way in Which the Qur'an is to Be Interpreted"

[Suhail Mulla]

I want to add a quote and make a slight clarification to my above statement. This quote is taken from Dr. Bilal Philips book "Usool at-Tafseer". He says on page 42:

"These explanations (of ayat based upon the tafsir of the
Prophet and the Sahaba) are considered a part of tafsir by
aathaar and should be given precedence over personal
opinions where there is unanimity among them. Where they
differed, none of their opinions is given preference over the
others unless it is supported by the language."

Dr. Bilal's language is more precise than mine and I thought it would be worthwhile sharing.