the Quran, its usage among groups of the early generations, and its technical usage among groups of later scholars. Because the term ta’wīl has these different senses, everyone who understood it according to his own usage assumed that this was the meaning intended in the Quran.

Mujāhid was a leading authority on Quranic explanation. Al-Thawrī said:

“If an explanation comes to you from Mujāhid, that is sufficient for you.”

As for ta’wīl, that is another matter.

This is made clear by the fact that none of the Companions or Successors refused to explain a verse of Allah’s Book or said, “This belongs to the ambiguous passages whose meaning is unknown.” Nor did any of the early generations of this community or the imams followed by others ever say:

“The Quran contains verses whose meaning neither the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, nor the people of knowledge and faith collectively know or understand.”

They may, however, deny that particular people know some of it, and this is beyond doubt. It was only later scholars from the various groups who formulated this issue because of discussions concerning the verses on Allah’s attributes, the verses on divine decree, and other matters.

They gave it such formulations as:

“May the Quran contain that whose meaning is unknown?”

and:

“that whose wording we have been required to recite as worship without understanding.”

Some groups allowed this possibility, clinging to an apparent sense of this verse and arguing that Allah tests His servants with whatever He wills. Other groups rejected it in order to use that rejection to arrive at their corrupt interpretations, which amount to displacing words from