it appears in the disjointed letters that open certain surahs.

Chapter Seventeen: On the fact that taʾwīl corrupts every discipline once it is brought to bear upon it, undermines confidence in language, and makes it impossible for any nation to subsist upon it.

It is well known that the purpose of every science is explained by its authors, who aim to clarify it for students and make them understand it by the most accessible means they can devise. If taʾwīl is unleashed upon their words and those words are forced away from their apparent meanings, no benefit can be gained; the sciences are ruined, and their very subject matter and intent are rendered void.

How, then, can taʾwīl be directed at the speech of the One in whose discourse there can be no error, mistake, contradiction, or anything contrary to clarity and guidance—especially given His perfect knowledge, His complete power to employ the highest forms of expression, His consummate counsel, guidance, and beneficence, and His intent to make matters understood and plain, not to obscure them with riddles and enigmas?

Section: Demonstrating that if taʾwīl is applied to the verses and reports concerning declarative, theoretical tawḥīd, it must necessarily be applied to the verses and reports concerning practical, volitional tawḥīd, thereby corrupting tawḥīd in both knowledge and purpose.

If taʾwīl is applied to declarative, cognitive tawḥīd, applying it to practical, volitional tawḥīd is even easier; the very traces of tawḥīd would vanish, and the landmarks of negation and polytheism would rise in their place. Thus shirk and taʿṭīl are inseparable twins; one never parts from the other.

Chapter Eighteen: On the division of people, with respect to the texts of revelation, into proponents of taʾwīl, proponents of takhyīl, proponents of tajhīl, proponents of tashbīh, and those who follow the balanced path.

These are the five categories into which people have divided on this matter, according to their belief regarding what