nothing but deviation and distortion, even though its partisans dress it up as “verification,” “gnosis,” or “interpretation.”
Among the worst examples of such distortive, heretical taʾwīl is the Jahmiyyah’s handling of the Almighty’s words, “And Allah spoke to Moses directly” (Q 4:163). They claim the verse means that He merely wounded Moses’ heart with maxims and esoteric insights.
A second instance is their tampering with the very wording of the verse. They shift the case-ending of the phrase “And Allah spoke” from nominative to accusative, reading it as “and he spoke to Allah,” that is, that Moses spoke to Allah and not that Allah spoke to Moses. This is of the same ilk as the alterations perpetrated by the Jews—indeed it is even uglier—and in this matter the Jews are closer to the truth than they are. When one of the Jahmiyyah made this alteration, a champion of pure monotheism challenged him: “What will you do, then, with the verse, ‘And when Moses came to Our appointed time, his Lord spoke to him’ (Q 7:143)?” The would-be interpreter was left dumbfounded.
Likewise, one of the so-called Firʿawniyyah once asked a leading grammarian, “Is it permissible to read al-ʿarshu with the nominative case in the verse, ‘The Most Merciful established Himself over the Throne’ (Q 20:5)?” What the Firʿawni sought by this contortion was to make istiwāʾ an attribute of the created rather than of the Creator. Even if he had managed to twist the grammar in that single place, the remaining verses would have closed the door on him!
Yet another example of distortive taʾwīl is their reading of the Prophet’s ﷺ words: “When Allah speaks the revelation, the inhabitants of the heavens hear a sound like the dragging of a chain (1) over smooth stone; they are overcome, and the first to regain consciousness is Gabriel.”(2) They say its meaning is, “When the angel of Allah speaks the revelation,” denying that Allah Himself speaks, and thus they have made