—unlike the verses that deal with legal rulings.

If it is said, “This is disproved by the well-known principle that the verses of command and prohibition, of what is lawful and unlawful, are muḥkam (categorically precise), whereas the verses concerning the divine attributes are mutashābih (open to more than one sense). How, then, can the mutashābih be clearer than the muḥkam?!”

We reply: tashābuh (resemblance) and iḥkām (decisiveness) are of two kinds. One kind embraces the entire Book, and the other pertains only to certain parts of it as opposed to others.

The first kind is indicated by His words, “Allah has sent down the best discourse: a Book consistent within itself” (Az-Zumar 39:23); by His words, “A Scripture whose verses have been set forth in detail” (Hūd 11:1); and by His words, “Yā Sīn. By the wise Quran” (Yā Sīn 36:1-2).

The second kind is shown in His words, “It is He who has sent down to you the Book; in it are verses that are muḥkam—they are the foundation of the Book—while others are mutashābih” (Āl ʿImrān 3:7).

If by calling the verses on the attributes mutashābih you mean this first, universal sense, then yes: they are mutashābih in that they are mutually consistent and free of contradiction, each resembling the other; the same holds true for the verses of rulings. But if you mean (1) that their intended meaning can be mistaken for something else, then—although this may occur for some people—it is a relative, subjective matter, and a passage will be mutashābih for one person but not for another. In this respect there is no difference between the verses of rulings and the verses of the attributes, for in both cases the intended meaning can (2) be confused with something else by some people while remaining clear to others.

People have disputed at great length about what is muḥkam and what is mutashābih, and it has never been reported from anyone—