and this includes expressions requiring clarification, for these too are ambiguous. Making them definitive means ruling out any unintended meaning that might be imagined in them. The same applies to a text whose ruling has been repealed, for all of this involves annulling what Satan casts into the interpretation of the Quran.

For this reason, they used to ask: “Do you know the abrogating from the abrogated?” Once the abrogating is known, the definitive is known. Accordingly, it is valid to speak of “the definitive and the abrogated,” just as one speaks of “the definitive and the ambiguous.”

His subsequent words,

“Then Allah makes His verses firm,”

establish that all the verses are made firm, both their definitive and their ambiguous passages, as He says:

“Alif Lām Rā.”

“A Book whose verses have been made firm, then set out in detail.”

And He says:

“These are the verses of the firmly established Book,”

according to one of the two interpretations.

Elsewhere, He divides the verses into two categories, definitive and ambiguous, as He says:

“In it are definitive verses, which are the foundation of the Book, and others that are ambiguous.”

These ambiguous passages are among what the Most Merciful revealed, not among what Satan cast forth and Allah annulled. Thus, in the Quran, the definitive is sometimes contrasted with the ambiguous, both being among Allah’s verses; at other times, it is contrasted with what Allah annulled of what Satan cast forth.

Some people contrast it with whatever Allah has abrogated, without qualification, even saying: “This verse is definitive, not abrogated.” They regard what is abrogated as not definitive, even though Allah originally revealed it, following the apparent sense of His words:

“Allah annuls,”

“Then Allah makes His verses firm.”