—and a craftsmanship marked by perfect precision and internal harmony, so that none of its rulings contradict another and none of its reports belie another, as Allah says: “Do they not then reflect upon the Quran? Had it been from anyone other than Allah, they would surely have found many inconsistencies within it” (4:82).

– The ihkām (precision) ascribed to certain passages refers to their clarity and manifestness: their meaning is plain and unmistakable to anyone. Such verses are numerous in both narratives and rulings.

An example from the narratives is His statement: “The month of Ramadan in which the Quran was revealed” (2:185). Everyone knows what the month of Ramadan is, and everyone knows what the Quran is.

An example from the rulings is His statement: “Show kindness to parents” (17:23). Everyone knows who his parents are, and everyone understands the meaning of kindness.

– As for the tashābuh (similarity) attributed to certain passages, it denotes ambiguity—that is, a hidden meaning that is unclear to some people but not to others. It is understood by those firmly grounded in knowledge, to the exclusion of others.

Our stance toward the diversity of these descriptions and how to reconcile them

Our approach to the variety of these descriptions is as follows:

– Affirming that the entire Quran is muhkam and affirming that the entire Quran is mutashābih are not mutually contradictory. They are reconciled by recognizing that perfectly precise speech, by virtue of its completeness and truthfulness, is uniformly excellent throughout: it contains no contradictions in its rulings and no mutual refutation in its reports.

– Likewise, describing the Quran as partly muhkam and partly mutashābih involves no contradiction at all, because each description applies to verses to which the other does not. Some passages are muhkam, their meaning being manifest, while others are mutashābih, their meaning being subtle. As a result, people have split into two groups: