Thus, it must not be said of such interpretation, “None knows it except Allah and those firmly grounded in knowledge.” Rather, what should be said of it is:

“Say, ‘Do you inform Allah of something He does not know in the heavens or on the earth?’” [Yūnus: 18]

Such are the interpretations of the Jahmiyyah and the esoteric Qarmatians: interpreting the five daily prayers as knowing their secrets; fasting as concealing their secrets; pilgrimage as visiting their shaykhs; “the clear record” as ʿAlī ibn Abī Tālib; “the leaders of disbelief” as Talhah and al-Zubayr; “the tree cursed in the Quran” as the Umayyads; “pearls and coral” as al-Hasan and al-Husayn; “the fig, the olive, Mount Sinai, and this secure city” as Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, ʿUthmān, and ʿAlī; “the cow” as ʿĀʾishah; “Pharaoh” as the heart; and “the star, the moon, and the sun” as the soul and the intellect, and so forth.

These interpretations constitute distorting words from their proper places and deviating concerning Allah’s signs. They are lies against Allah, His Messenger, and His Book. Such interpretations must not be treated as true, only to claim that Allah has reserved knowledge of them for Himself. Rather, they are false, like false testimony and the disbelief of disbelievers: Allah knows them to be false. Allah makes their falsehood known to His servants through the means by which He teaches them, including setting forth proofs and other means.

What leads the misguided into such distortion is their refusal to understand the Book of Allah Most High as the Companions and their successors understood it, and their opposition to what it signifies by advancing what contradicts it. This is among the gravest forms of opposition to Allah and His Messenger, but pursued through hypocrisy and deception.