And the one who is expert in its taʾwīl—that is, in unveiling what it truly denotes—is the very person who can inform others of it, just as Joseph said to the two prisoners:

“No food that you are provided in your dream will come to you but that I will have told you its interpretation before it reaches you.”

And the Almighty has said:

“If you should differ over anything, refer it back to Allah and the Messenger—if you truly believe in Allah and the Last Day. That is best and yields the finest outcome in interpretation.”

The early scholars explained “the finest outcome” as “the best consequence and ultimate destiny.” Here, then, taʾwīl refers to their practical act of returning every dispute to the Book and the Sunnah. In Sūrat Yūsuf taʾwīl refers to interpreting dream-reports. In al-Aʿrāf and Yūnus it denotes the interpretation of the Qur’an itself, and the same meaning occurs in Āl ʿImrān.

Concerning the story of Moses and the sage, Allah said:

“He answered, ‘This is the parting between you and me. I will inform you of the interpretation of that over which you could not remain patient’ … ‘I did not do it of my own accord; that is the interpretation of what you could not bear patiently.’ ”

Here, taʾwīl concerns the actions the sage performed: scuttling a ship without the owner’s leave, killing a boy, and erecting a wall. It is therefore the interpretation of deeds, not of words.

This is because taʾwīl is the verbal noun of awwala / yuʾawwilu—taʾwīlan, parallel to ḥawwāla / yuḥawwilu—taḥwīlan and ʿawwāla / yuʿawwilu—taʿwīlan. The intransitive counterpart is āla / yaʾūlu—awlan, corresponding to ḥāla / yaḥūlu—ḥawlan.

Thus they say: āla / yaʾūlu, meaning “to turn back to” or “to revert to.” From this comes the term al-maʾāl, “that to which a thing ultimately returns,” and, by a broader derivation, al-mūʾil, “the refuge,” derived from waʾala, while al-maʾāl derives from awala.

Of al-mūʾil—“the place of refuge”—the Almighty says: “They will find no refuge apart from Him.”