Second: He must precisely identify the proposed meaning; for once a word is removed from its literal sense it can bear several possibilities, and selecting the intended one requires proof.
Third: He must furnish evidence strong enough to divert the wording from its apparent, literal sense; it is impermissible to depart from that sense unless there is a counter-proof weightier than it.
Fourth: He must rebut the opponent, for the proponent of the literal sense has already produced both rational and scriptural arguments establishing that the literal sense is intended.
Chapter Ten: On the fact that taʾwīl (allegorical interpretation) is worse than taʿṭīl (negating the attributes), because it involves tashbīh (anthropomorphism), taʿṭīl, tampering with the texts, and harboring ill thoughts about them.
Both the muʿaṭṭil (negator) and the muʾawwul (interpreter) agree in denying the true realities of the divine names and attributes, yet the interpreter is distinguished by his manipulation of the texts, his violation of their sanctity, and his presuming evil regarding them—claiming that their Speaker uttered words whose outward sense is misguidance and leading others astray. Thus they have combined four grave dangers:
The first danger: their conviction that the apparent meaning of the words of Allah and His Messenger is impossible and false—so they initially understood the text as entailing tashbīh.
They then moved on to the second danger, namely taʿṭīl: they nullified the realities of the attributes on the basis of that understanding, which befits them but does not befit the Lord, exalted be His majesty.
The third danger: attributing to the Speaker—perfect in knowledge, perfect in eloquence, perfect in sincere counsel—the very opposite of clarity, guidance, and instruction, while asserting that the bewildered and reckless have expressed this matter more skillfully, using wording that does not convey the falsehood allegedly conveyed by the wording of the Speaker in those texts. There is no doubt to any rational person that this entails claiming that such people were more knowledgeable than He, more eloquent, or more sincere in advising humanity.