any meaning, or even points to the very opposite, this is sheer impediment and flatly contradicts the notion of ease.

Chapter Fourteen: On the fact that figurative reinterpretation nullifies the very purpose for which languages were established.

A person can discover what is in another’s mind only through the words that disclose it. When a listener takes the speaker’s words in a sense other than that for which the terms were coined, and other than what common usage conveys in conversation, the objective of language is nullified: the speaker’s purpose is lost, the listener gains no benefit, and the outcome is worse than if the tongue had been altogether silent. Hence false taʾwīl (esoteric reinterpretation) throws open the gates of heresy and unbelief and provides the enemies of the religion with a pathway to dismantle it.

Chapter Fifteen: On the crimes of taʾwīl against the religions of the Messengers, and that the devastation of the world and the corruption of worldly and religious life stem from opening the door to it.

The afflictions that its advocates have wrought—and continue to wreak at every moment—upon the religion and the community through their corrupt reinterpretations are too numerous to count, beyond the reach of any description, and far too vast for any chronicler to encompass. In short, they are the root of every corruption and trial, the foundation of every misguidance and innovation, the mother of every disagreement and schism, and the wellspring of all estrangement, enmity, and hatred.

Chapter Sixteen: Clarifying which speech is open to reinterpretation and which is not.

Speech that lends itself to reinterpretation is that which carries several possible meanings and lacks any indicator revealing the speaker’s intent; in such cases taʾwīl has wide scope. In the speech of Allah and His Messenger, however, there is not a single composed sentence of this kind, even if