Stories of the Quran

by Ibn Kathir (trans. Ali As-Sayyed Al-Halawani)

All praise and thanks are due to Allah, the Lord of the worlds. We cannot find words to praise Him, As He only sees fit how laudation should be addressed to Him. We seek refuge in Allah from the evils within ourselves and the evils of our bad deeds. Whosoever Allah guides will never be led astray, and whosoever He leads astray will never find guidance. We bear witness that there is no god but Allah, the One without any associate, and We bear witness that Muhammad is His Messenger and bondman, peace and blessings be upon him, his kith and kin, his Companions and all those who follow their guidance until the Day of Judgment.

The Glorious Quran will continue to be the sole everlasting miracle till the Day of Judgement. It is the Word of Allah, Exalted be He, sent to His chosen Prophet, Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) who endeavored with all his might and main to convey and explain it to the whole world. He visualizes to the whole world its inherent wisdom and admonition. The Glorious Quran, however, recounts a number of stories that took place throughout far-remote points of history which are full of events that one's eyes and mind cannot fail to grasp its admonition and advice. These admonitions and advice, if seriously considered, can verify and restore to the right course a great number of false beliefs and concepts. Allah the Almighty says:

"Thus We relate to you (O Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him)) some information of what happened before. And indeed We have given you from Us a Reminder (this Quran)". [Noble Quran 20:99]

Given the significance of these stories, not a small number of Muslim scholars exerted efforts to compile, verify and comment on them. Ibn Kathir (May Allah rest his soul) is a pioneer in that respect. His voluminous Al-Bidayah wan-Nihayah (The Beginning and the End) relates the stories of Allah's prophets and world nations since the beginning of history. Truly, he successfully managed to find the relationship between the details cited in the Glorious Quran and the Prophetic Hadiths of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) that explained and clarified the incidents that took place. He also tried his best to portrait the characters of heroes of our stories and their relevant backgrounds. So doing, he presented a lively easy account of these stories of the Glorious Quran.

Here, I must admit that translating this book Stories of the Quran was not an easy thing. As the original book of Ibn Kathir was full of details, the translation underwent some abridgment, without impairing the contents of the book. Also, I have left out most of the Invented Hadiths, Al-Mawdu'at, that were 'falsely' attributed to Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) throughout the book (by other than Ibn Kathir of course!). However, it goes without saying that the style of the Arabic language is totally different from that of English. This forced me to make so many changes in the form of presenting the text with a view to rendering it more readable and easily understood by our dear reader.

In conclusion, I would like to thank all those who helped to publish this book. I pray to Allah to accept all our efforts as sincere deeds done solely for His Sake, for it is He alone Whose reward is of any real significance.

Translator Ali As-Sayyed Al-Halawani

Department of English, Faculty of Alsun, Minia University

All Praise is due to Allah and much peace and many blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah, his family, his companions, his followers and those who disseminate his call until the Day of Judgment.

Here we are with the book Stories of the Quran by AI-Hafiz Isma'il Ibn Kathir Ad-Dimashqi (May Allah rest his soul), taking a tour throughout the stories mentioned in the Glorious Quran pertaining to which Allah the Almighty says:

"Indeed in their stories, there is a lesson for men of understanding". [Noble Quran 12:111]

Yes, in order to find admonition, lessons and exemplary models!

This book of ours handles the stories that are cited in the Glorious Quran, gathered from the book titled, Al-Bidayah wan-Nihayah (The Beginning and the End). The book also covers a number of stories that were not included in Al-Bidayah wan-Nihayah, such as that of Harut and Marut. Also, stories of Allah's Prophets and Messengers (peace be upon them all) are not included here as they are already detailed in Ibn Kathir's other book Stories of the Prophets. One should know that Dar Al-Manarah issued three successive releases of this valuable book during the years 2000-2001.

We would like to thank `Ali As-Sayyed Al-Halawani for his efforts in translating and revising this work. Great appreciation is due also to Sa'id Fares, our respected reviser, under whose guidance and supervision the subject matter took proper form.

Finally, all Praise and Thanks are due to Allah, Most High.

Dar Al-Manarah Director, M. `Uthman

BIOGRAPHY OF IBN KATHIR (700 -774 A.H.) (May Allah bless his soul)

`Imad Ad-Deen Isma'il Ibn `Umar Ibn Kathir Al-Basri Ad-Dimashqi was born in 700 A.H., or shortly afterwards. After the decease of his father, Ibn Kathir, aged seven then, headed for Damascus, accompanied by his elder brother. He owed much of his learning to Ibn Ashginah, Al-Amadi, Ibn `Asakir and others, may Allah be pleased with them all. He immensely revered Ibn Taymiyah, may Allah bless his soul, whose views he believed, defended and mostly abided by, particularly as regards divorce. It was on account of this that he went through an ordeal and was made to suffer a lot.

Ibn Kathir was widely acclaimed for the sublime degree of learning that he so admirably attained. Scholars have unanimously attested to his well-versedness, particularly in the fields of the exegesis of the Glorious Quran, Hadith and history. Ibn Habib describes him as "the leader of all men engaged in the exegesis (of the Quran). He amassed and categorized all (the knowledge) he heard. People marveled at his Fatwas and benefited from his teachings. His Fatwas grew widely popular all across the country. He was renowned for his precision and was proclaimed as the beacon of history, Hadith and exegesis (of the Quran)." Ibn Hijji, one of his students, owed: "Of all our contemporaries, he (Ibn Kathir) was the best at memorizing authentic Hadiths and the most knowledgeable as to assessing the degree of reliability and honesty of Hadith-narrators as well as authentic and non-authentic Hadiths. His comrades and mentors acknowledge every word of the above. I would frequently visit him, and every time I was in his company I benefited from him."

Ibn Kathir lost his eyesight shortly before he died in 774 A. H. He was buried at the Sufis cemetery along with his mentor Ibn Taymiyah. Among his best-known works is his masterpiece in history Al-Bidayah wan-Nihayah (The Beginning and the End).He also interpreted part of Al Bukhari's Sahih (book of authentic Hadiths). By and large, Ibn Kathir's admirable knowledge and well-versedness are best manifested to whoever reads his two best celebrated masterpieces; his interpretation and his book of history.

Stories of the Quran

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