بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Tafsir , or the interpretation, of the Qur’an was not recorded in the time of the Prophet ( s.a.w. ) as an independent field of study, but statements of the Prophet ( s.a.w. ) which bore on the interpretation of the verses of the Qur’an were transmitted from him, just as ahadits were transmitted from him. The era of the companions continued like this, without tafsir being recorded independently. Then came the time of the successors, who took their knowledge of the Qur’an and sunnah from the companions. Each group of successors received knowledge directly from the companions. So, they collected everything that was transmitted by the companions from the Prophet ( s.a.w.) as ahadits , and they heard from the companions what concerned the interpretation of the verses of the Qur’an. So, the scholars of each region collected what their predecessors knew, as the people of Makkah did with regard to the tafsir of Sayyidina...
