they mention when explaining ishtimāl al-sammā’ (a particular manner of wrapping oneself in a garment). For jurists understand what the Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, commanded and prohibited because they know his purposes, just as the followers of Hippocrates, Sībawayh, and others like them understand aspects of their purposes that cannot be known through language alone. Yet the ta’wīl of commands and prohibitions must be known, unlike the ta’wīl of statements.

Once this is understood, the ta’wīl of what Allah Most High has related about His holy Self, characterized by the realities of His names and attributes, is the actual reality of His holy Self, characterized by the realities of His attributes. The ta’wīl of what Allah Most High has related concerning promises and threats is the very fulfillment of those promises and threats. Hence the words found in the hadith:

“We act upon its clear passages and believe in its equivocal passages.”

For what Allah has related about Himself and the Last Day includes expressions whose meanings resemble what we know in this world. He has told us, for example, that Paradise contains meat, milk, honey, wine, and other such things. These resemble what exists in this world in wording and meaning, but they are neither identical to them nor the same in their actual reality. This applies all the more to Allah’s names and attributes: although they bear some resemblance to the names and attributes of His servants, that resemblance does not make the Creator like the created being, nor His reality like its reality.

An account of what is unseen cannot be understood unless it is expressed using names whose meanings are known in the observable world. Through these names, what is unseen is understood by means of our knowledge of what is observable, while recognizing the distinction between them and knowing that what Allah has related of the unseen is greater than what is known in the observable world. And in the unseen there is