—that is, he was putting the Qur’an into practice—namely Allah’s words: “So glorify the praise of your Lord and seek His forgiveness” (Qur’an 110:3).

Sufyan ibn ʿUyaynah likewise said, “The Sunnah is the taʾwīl of commands and prohibitions.”

The very act that one is ordered to perform is itself the taʾwīl of that command, and the very reality that is being reported is the taʾwīl of the report. Speech, after all, consists of report and command; for this reason Abū ʿUbayd and others would say that the jurists are more knowledgeable of taʾwīl than the linguists, just as—