have risen above the level of faith—as some speculative theologians imagine. Rather, they possess both knowledge and faith, as Allah Most High says:

“But those among them firmly grounded in knowledge, and the believers, believe in what has been revealed to you and what was revealed before you.”

And He says:

“Those who were given knowledge and faith will say, ‘You have indeed remained, according to Allah’s decree…’”

Thus, His words:

“Those firmly grounded in knowledge say, ‘We believe in it; all of it is from our Lord,’”

parallel this verse. Here He states that those given knowledge know that it is the truth from their Lord, while there He states that they say concerning the ambiguous passages: “We believe in it; all of it is from our Lord.” Both passages concern matters that give rise to doubt and confusion for others. There, the discussion concerns ambiguous passages; here, it concerns what Satan casts forth, which Allah annuls, after which Allah makes His verses firm. Here He contrasts what is firmly established with what Allah has annulled of what Satan cast forth.

For this reason, some early Quran commentators said that the “definitive” is the abrogating, and the “ambiguous” is the abrogated. They meant—and Allah knows best—His words:

“Allah annuls what Satan casts forth; then Allah makes His verses firm.”

Abrogation here means removing what Satan has cast forth, not repealing what Allah has legislated.

I have pointed out the reason for this in a later passage, namely: Allah sometimes contrasts the definitive with the ambiguous, and at other times with the abrogated. In the broad terminology of the early generations, “the abrogated” includes any text whose apparent meaning is set aside because of stronger countervailing evidence, such as restricting the scope of a general expression or qualifying an unrestricted one. Such a text is ambiguous because it admits of two meanings