He meant that this wording rules out the kind of taʾwīl (figurative interpretation) upheld by its advocates—namely, diverting a term from its apparent sense, whether they deem such diversion obligatory or merely permissible.

So I said, “It is the distortion of words from their proper places, something Allah has condemned in His Book; that is, removing the wording from the meaning it conveys. A case in point is the reading of some Jahmiyyah for His statement, ‘And Allah spoke to Moses directly’ (Q 4:164), claiming it means: ‘He scratched him with the fingernails of wisdom, again and again.’ The same holds for the interpretations (1) advanced by the Qaramita, the Batiniyyah, and others among the Jahmiyyah, the Rafidah, the Qadariyyah, and the like (2). At this he fell silent, though inwardly he remained discomfited.

I also mentioned in another sitting that I had deliberately set aside the term ‘taʾwīl’ and chosen instead the word ‘taḥrīf,’ because taḥrīf is a name the Quran expressly censures. In formulating this creed I sought to follow the Book and the Sunnah; therefore I rejected what Allah has condemned—taḥrīf—while refraining from using the word ‘taʾwīl’ either in denial or affirmation, for it carries several meanings, as I have explained elsewhere in the Principles. Indeed, the sense of the word ‘taʾwīl’ in the Book of Allah is different (3) [ق 77] from its sense in the terminology of later scholars of legal theory and jurisprudence, and different again from its sense in the usage of many commentators and early authorities (4). Moreover, among the meanings sometimes called ‘taʾwīl’ is one (5) that is sound and has been transmitted from some—