It is also reported from Muhammad ibn Ishāq, concerning “In it are verses that are clear”: “They contain the proof of the Lord, exalted is He, protection for His servants, and the means of dispelling disputes and falsehood. They admit of neither diversion nor distortion from their intended meaning.” Concerning “and others that are ambiguous,” he said: “Their meaning is not explained in detail as it is in the clear verses. They appear ambiguous to people’s minds and lend themselves to conjectural interpretation. Allah, exalted is He, tests His servants through them just as He tests them through what is lawful and unlawful.”

In another report from him, he said: “They are alike in their truthfulness, yet susceptible to diversion, distortion, and interpretation. Allah tests His servants through them, just as He tests them through what is lawful and unlawful: they must not turn them toward falsehood or distort them away from the truth.

“‘As for those in whose hearts is deviation, they follow what is ambiguous in it, seeking discord’ [Āl ‘Imrān 7]—that is, whatever has been distorted and diverted from it, seeking to cause confusion, ‘and seeking its interpretation,’ together with the misguidance they have advanced through interpretation and embellished, so that the innovations they already embrace may be made to fit, providing them with an argument against those who