hafiz ibn kathir was a student of ibn taymiyah alright; yet, i doubt that he followed him in everything.
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for example, the verse of istiwa in various places; ibn kathir insists that the tafsir is done without
tak'yif, tashbih, ta'aTil and
tamthil.
تقدم الكلام على ذلك في سورة الأعراف بما أغنى عن إعادته أيضاً، وأن المسلك الأسلم في ذلك طريقة السلف إمرار ما جاء في ذلك من الكتاب والسنة من غير تكييف ولا تحريف ولا تشبيه ولا تعطيل ولا تمثيل.
in surah al-furqan, he stays miles away from the position of tajsim:
ثُمَّ ٱسْتَوَىٰ عَلَى ٱلْعَرْشِ} أي: يدبر الأمر، ويقضي الحق، وهو خير الفاصلين
also see: 2:29, 7:54, 10:3, 13:2, 20:5, 25:59, 32:4, 41:11.
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tafsir of
a'ayun: 54:15, is unlike that of anthropomorphists
tafsir of
saaq: 68:42, it is overwhelmingly the tafsir of ahlu's sunnah and not a hint of tajsim there.
tafsir of
wajh: 28:88, classic sunni tafsir and the same alahazrat translated in kanz.
tafsir of yad: 5:64, no hint of tajsim either.
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in fact, he departs from the position of his shaykh (ibn taymiyyah) concerning the ziyarah of the Habib sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam. see the tafsir of the verse 64 of surah nisaa (4:64) where he mentions the narration of utbi positively.
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in
al-bidayah wa'n nihayah, he praises the amir who started the practice of mawlidu'n nabiy
al-malik al-muzaffar abu sayid al-kukabri, and mentions the mawlid celebrated by him in an admiring manner. he also mentions ibn DiHyah's book:
at-tanwir fi mawlidi'l bashir an-nadhir.
(see events of the year 630) (devbandis for some strange reason misrepresent this and claim that hafiz ibn kathir slammed the amir)
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shaykhu'l islam ibn Hajar said in
inba'a al-ghumur and
al-durar al-kaminah: that his books are beneficial; which was quoted by suyuti in his
dhayl Tabaqat al-Huffaz; suyuti also praised him.
dawudi (d.945AH) also praises him in his
Tabaqat al-Mufassirin, but also adds that he was close to his shaykh ibn taymiyyah and that he followed him
in many of his opinions; that he used to give fatwa (in spite of his being a shafiyi) according to ibn taymiyah in the matter of triple-talaq; and because of this, he suffered greatly.
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in my opinion,
tafsir ibn kathir is a very good reference for hadith and akhbar related to tafsirز so also are his two other books:
al-bidayah wa'n nihayah and
qaSaSu'l anbiya of which, the latter doesn't have an alternative in that subject.
but yes, it has always caused me discomfort that he was ibn taymiyah's student and his account of ibn taymiyah's trials mentioned in
bidayah is very biased.
Allah ta'ala knows best.
