Quran Interpretation Attributed to Imam Hassan Askari
It includes 379 Hadiths and Ta’weel (explanation and elucidation) of some verses of the Holy Book. Most of the Ta’weels are about the miracles of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) and Shia Imams.
The Tafseer dates back to the 3rd Hijri century. There have been different views on whether this Tafseer can be attributed to the Imam (AS).
Imam Hassan Askari (AS) was born in 846 in Medina and was martyred in 874 in Samarra. He is the 11th Shia Imam and the father of Imam Mahdi (may God hasten his glad advent), the promised Savior.
The book was inscribed at the order of Imam Hassan Askari’s (AS) by Abu Yaqub Yusuf ibn Muhammad ibn Ziyad and Abul Hassan Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Yasar, two of the Imam’s students.
It does not include the Tafseer of the entire Quran, bur begins with the interpretation of Surah Al-Fatihah and concludes with the interpretation of verse 282 of Surah Al-Baqarah.
The book is among narrative interpretations of the Quran. It begins with offering explanations about the virtues of the Holy Quran, Ta’weel, and manners of reciting the Holy Book and continues with Hadiths about the virtues of Ahl-ul-Bayt (AS).
There are Ta’weels of some verses of the Quran and most of them are about the miracles of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) and Shia Imams.
Most of the 379 Hadiths mentioned in this Tafseer are long and detailed and some of them cover several pages.
Sheikh al-Saduq (died in 991) is the first Muslim scholar who cited from this book very much although he did not talks about its authenticity.
Ayatollah Seyfi Mazandarani, a contemporary Faqih, refers to Sheikh al-Saduq’s citing of Hadiths from this Tafseer and says it is one of the reasons proving its authenticity, especially because Sheikh al-Saduq was close to the time of Imam (AS) and his father was one of Imam’s companions. A study of works in the 4th and 5th centuries also shows that referring to this book was common among the Hadith and Fiqh scholars of the time.
On the other hand, Hadith researcher and university scholar Hojat-ol-Islam Abdol Hadi Masoudi believes the two individuals that have narrated the book from Imam Hassan Askari (AS) are not known in history. He also says there are Hadiths in this Tafseer that are not compatible with historical accounts.
After Sheikh al-Saduq, Abu Mansour Ahmed ibn Ali Tabarsi in his book Ihtijaj has named this Tafseer and its attribution of Imam Hassan Askari (AS) but has said that it is not well known.
Despite the importance of this Tafseer, studies about this work are only at the early stages. The most comprehensive and profound studies conducted about it in the Shia world, especially in Iran, are those written for encyclopedias.
