Tanwir al-Miqbas min Tafsir Ibn Abbas is a Tafsir that is attributed Sahabi Ibn Abbas and has been quoted many times by multiple critics of Islam and sometimes even its defenders. However I believe that it is not wise to use this Tafsir as an argument or as evidence.

The first and most clear reason, is that the Tafsir is an outright fabrication. As the English translator of the Tafsir, Mokrane Guezzou points out:

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There is no doubt that this commentary is not the work of Ibn ‘Abbas. The chain of transmitters of this commentary goes back to Muhammad Ibn Marwan <– Al-Kalbi <– Abu Salih which is described by Hadith experts as the chain of lies (silsilat al-kadhib), for this line of transmission is utterly dubious and unreliable.

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Abu Salih was described as a liar by his own student Isma’il ibn Abi Khalid, the reason being that Salih actually confessed this fact to him (Abu Ja’far al-’Uqayli, ad-Du’afa’ al-Kabir vol. 1 p. 165).

Al-Kalbi, was one of the most notorious liars of Kufa. His biography in al-Mizzi’s Tahdhib al-Kamal is filled with statements of the scholars of his time who denounced him as an extremely unreliable reporter, and even a blatant liar. (See al-Mizzi, Tahdhib al-Kamal vol. 25 pp. 246-253). There exists a very interesting statement in the biography by his kinsman who records Abu Salih as saying that he never narrated any Tafsir to Kalbi. The second is an admission of guilt by Abu Salih. Sufyan ath-Thawri narrates that al-Kalbi said, “Whatever Tafsir I narrated from Abu Salih is untrue. Do not narrate it from me.”

Muhammad ibn Marwan (AKA as-Suddi as-Saghir) was a notorious forger whose lies were noted by both his contemporaries and the scholars after him. (Tahdhib al-Kamal vol. 26 pp. 392-394).

Another piece of evidence against tanwir Al-Miqbas’s attribution to Ibn Abbas is the fact that it mentions people by name who lived after Ibn Abbas, sometimes hundreds of years later and that it can suddenly say that “Ibn Abbas said such-and-such” even though this is meant to be a hadith tafsir:

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One finds it, for instance, references to Hasan al-Basri, al-Suddi and even the grammarian Yahya Ibn Ziyad al-Farra’ (d. 207/822). In a few places, after giving different meanings of the same verse, the author(s) or compiler(s) proceed(s) to say: “… and this is the opinion of Ibn ‘Abbas” or: “Ibn ‘Abbas says…”, forgetting that the entire commentary is supposed to be an accurate transmission of what is narrated from Ibn ‘Abbas.

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For instance:

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Ibn ‘Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him and with his father, said: ” I am among those few: they were eight young men, and the dog “.

Tanwir Al-Miqbas 18:22

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….according to al-Hasan al-Basri; and according to al-Farra‘ this means: draw closer to Allah by means of repentance.

Tanwir Al-Miqbas 42:23

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…this is the opinion of al-Suddi

Tanwir Al-Miqbas 39:28

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In short, Tanwir Al-Miqbas is not the words of Ibn Abbas. Its attribution to Ibn Abbas is a forgery of notorious liars.