A comparison of the narrations of muqatil b. Suleyman in the work named tafsirul-Qur'ani'l-Kerim by ebul-leys es-Samerkandi with the those in muqatil's own tafsir

In the 4th century of the Hijri calendar, Abu'l-Layth as-Samarqandi authored an important work intended for future generations. His work titled "Tafsir al-Qur'ani'l-Karim" made significant contributions to the field of Quranic exegesis. Abu'l-Layth meticulously gathered both rational and traditional evidences to understand and explain the Quran, demonstrating noteworthy effort in this regard. as-Samarqandi did not limit himself to presenting his own views when interpreting verses; he also benefited from the opinions of previous commentators. Therefore, his exegesis prominently reflects a transmission-based approach. Indeed, he often includes statements like "Mujahid or Muqatil said such and such," thereby incorporating the perspectives of earlier scholars into his work. Among the scholars whose views he extensively cites in his tafsir, Muqatil bin Sulayman stands out. In his work "Tafsir al-Qur'ani'l-Karim," as-Samarqandi includes over 500 narrations attributed to Muqatil, underscoring the latter's significant influence. One reason why as-Samarqandi relies heavily on Muqatil is that his work represents the first complete exegesis of the Quran from beginning to end. Another factor is the temporal proximity of his writings to the era of revelation, allowing him to gather narrations from the Companions and Successors. Additionally, the geographical proximity between Muqatil bin Sulayman and Abu'l-Layth as-Samarqandi's places of residence somewhat eased the challenges of transmission. When transmitting narrations from Muqatil, as-Samarqandi employed various methods. Sometimes he abbreviated the narrations, other times he added explanations, and occasionally he paraphrased them without altering their meanings. These diverse approaches indicate that as-Samarqandi did not employ a uniform method when transmitting from Muqatil. Based on our comparative study, in the first part of our work, we discussed the lives of these two commentators, their contemporary context, their authored works, and the scholarly contributions they made to the field of exegesis. In the second part, we endeavored to compare the narrations of Muqatil bin Sulayman as transmitted by Abu'l-Layth as-Samarqandi in "Tafsir al-Qur'ani'l-Karim" with those found in Muqatil's own tafsir. We categorized these transmissions into separate tables based on the method used by as-Samarqandi: abbreviated transmissions, added transmissions, identical in meaning but different in wording, different in both meaning and wording, identical transmissions, and those without equivalents. Through this comparison, we found that a significant majority of the narrations transmitted by as-Samarqandi from Muqatil align with those found in Muqatil's tafsir, indicating Abu'l-Layth as-Samarqandi's reliability in transmission. This analysis underscores Abu'l-Layth as-Samarqandi's meticulous approach to transmitting Muqatil's narrations, contributing to his credibility as a commentator on the Quran.