It is widely reported from the early scholars generally that promises and warnings belong to the ambiguous passages. Their interpretation is the actual fulfillment of what has been promised, and that rests with Allah: none but He can bring it about. The Quran does not say, “Knowledge of its interpretation is with Allah alone,” as it says concerning the Hour:

“They ask you about the Hour: when will it arrive? Say, ‘Knowledge of it is only with my Lord. None but He will reveal it at its appointed time. It weighs heavily upon the heavens and the earth. It will come upon you only suddenly.’ They ask you as though you were well informed about it. Say, ‘Knowledge of it is only with Allah, but most people do not know.’”

“Say, ‘I have no power to benefit or harm myself, except as Allah wills. Had I known the unseen, I would have acquired much good, and no harm would have touched me.’”

Likewise, when Pharaoh said to Moses:

“What, then, of the former generations?”

“He said, ‘Knowledge of them is with my Lord, in a record. My Lord neither errs nor forgets.’”

Thus, if Ibn Mas‘ūd’s reading excluded those firmly grounded in knowledge from possessing this knowledge, it would have read, “Knowledge of its interpretation is with Allah alone,” rather than, “Its interpretation is with Allah alone.” The latter is indisputably true.

As for the other reading attributed to Ubayy and Ibn ‘Abbās, statements contradicting it have been transmitted from Ibn ‘Abbās. The disciple most closely associated with him in Quranic commentary was Mujāhid, whose commentary most leading scholars rely upon, including al-Thawrī, al-Shāfi‘ī, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, and al-Bukhārī. Al-Thawrī said, “If a Quranic commentary reaches you from Mujāhid, that is sufficient for you.” Most of the commentary al-Shāfi‘ī transmits in his books comes through Ibn ‘Uyaynah, from Ibn Abī Najīh, from Mujāhid. Likewise, al-Bukhārī, in his Sahīh, relies on this