Suddī’s Approach Towards Israeli Traditions: Method, Reasons and Motive

Suddī Kabīr (d. 127 AH), a Follower who though was grown up in Kufa and attributed to Shi'a beliefs, contributed notably to the spread of the Israeli traditions in the exegeses after him, as such one of his exegetical features is the multiplicity of quoting from the People of the Book. In the present research, some of his Israeli traditions are criticized, regarding the criteria of the Qur’an, authentic Hadith and sound intellect. It is shown that his traditions either originated from Torah or have a Jewish-base structure engaged with Arabic imagining. The reason behind quoting such traditions by him was the fact that he used to be a pupil of Ib Abbas as well as the dominant of verbal quotations among the common Arab of the day. Suddī’s motivation to report such traditions is the same as his exegetical method, i.e. including exemplifying and making the verses tangible, regarding battles (maghāzī), biography (sīrah), causes of revelation (asbāb al-nuzūl), and stories (qiṣaṣ).