Back to search

What is the authenticity of the story of Abdullah ibn Abi Sarh's apostasy, as mentioned in Al-Qurtubi's Tafsir?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Al-Wahidi narrated this story in Asbab al-Nuzul and mentioned that it was a narration by Al-Kalbi from Ibn Abbas, and Al-Kalbi is accused of lying, rendering his narration invalid. Al-Tabari narrated it in an abridged form with his chain of transmission from Al-Suddi, but it is a mursal (missing the Companion in the chain) narration. Ibn Taymiyyah weakened it in Al-Sarim al-Maslul. However, the fact that Abdullah ibn Abi Sarh apostatized and then embraced Islam again is correct.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

Read the full answer on Ftawy