10 Facts About Ibn Kathir

Ibn Kathir was born in Mijdal, a village on the outskirts of the city of Busra, in the east of Damascus, Syria, around about AH 701.

Ibn Kathir married the daughter of Al-Mizzi, one of the foremost Syrian scholars of the period, which gave him access to the scholarly elite.

Ibn Kathir was buried next to his teacher Ibn Taymiyya.

Furthermore, these scholars assert that like Ibn Taymiyyah, Ibn Kathir is to be categorised as an anti-rationalistic, traditionalistic and hadith oriented scholar.

Barbara Freyer contends that this anti-rationalistic, traditionalistic and hadith oriented approaches held by Ibn Kathir were shared not only by Ibn Taymiyyah, but by Ibn Hazm, Bukhari independent Madhhab, and scholars from Jariri, and Zahiri Maddhabs.

Taha Jabir Alalwani, Professor and President of Cordoba University in Ashburn, Virginia maintains that these traditionalistic views of Ibn Kathir claimed by Salafists were rooted further to the generation of Sahaba Salaf, where Zubayr ibn al-Awwam, one of The ten to whom Paradise was promised taught this view.

Contemporary researchers notes that these anti rationalistic, anti Ash'arite methods of Ibn Kathir shared with his teacher Ibn Taimiyyah; were proven in his tafseer regarding the Day of Resurrection and Hypocrisy in Qur'an.

In summary, Jon Hoover outlined that Ibn Kathir stance according to scholars were orthodox traditionists and rejected the view of Mutakallims, just like the view of Salafi Muslims and their predecessor Ahl al-Hadith school.

Ibn Kathir's Tafsir has gained widespread popularity in modern times, especially among Western Muslims, probably due to his straightforward approach, but due to lack of alternative translations of traditional tafsirs.

Ibn Kathir's concern is limited to rate the Quran by the corpus of Hadith and is the first, who flatly rates Jewish sources as unreliable, while simultaneously using them, just as prophetic hadith, selectively to support his prefabricated opinion.