the Quran alone, they turn their backs in aversion.”

Thus, in condemnation of the polytheists, He states that when the Quran is recited to them, a concealed barrier is placed between their sight and the Messenger, coverings are placed over their hearts lest they understand it, and deafness in their ears. If the people of knowledge and faith had coverings over their hearts preventing them from understanding some of it, they would share this condition with them.

His words,

“lest they understand it,”

refer to the Quran in its entirety. It is therefore clear that Allah loves for it to be understood. Hence al-Hasan al-Basrī said:

“Allah has not revealed a verse without loving that people should know what it was revealed about and what He meant by it.”

No exception was made for ambiguous passages or any others.

Mujāhid said:

“I went through the Quran with Ibn ‘Abbās several times, from beginning to end, stopping at every verse and asking him about it.”

Here, then, is Ibn ‘Abbās, the great scholar of this community—one of those who said, “None knows its interpretation except Allah”—answering Mujāhid about every verse in the Quran. This is what led Mujāhid and those who agreed with him, such as Ibn Qutaybah, to place the recitational pause after His words,

“and those firmly grounded in knowledge,”

thus including those firmly grounded in knowledge among those who know its interpretation. For Mujāhid had learned from Ibn ‘Abbās the explanation of the entire Quran and the clarification of its meanings, so he thought that this was the interpretation whose knowledge was denied to anyone other than Allah. The underlying reason is that the term “ta’wīl” (interpretation) is used in different senses: what Allah meant by it in