as when Imam Ahmad—may Allah Most High have mercy on him—wrote a book refuting the heretics and the Jahmiyyah concerning the ambiguous passages of the Quran about which they harbored doubts and which they interpreted incorrectly. He did not reject interpretation as such; rather, he rejected their interpreting the Quran contrary to its proper meaning, which is false interpretation. Here, interpretation means explanation, not diverting the text to a less likely meaning.

His words, “concerning the ambiguous passages of the Quran about which they harbored doubts,” refer to what they found ambiguous, even though Allah Most High had made it clear and explained it, but