As for the taʾwīl that Allah has kept exclusively to Himself, it is the very reality of His Essence and His attributes, as Mālik said; the modality (the “how”) is unknown. Hence, when people ask, “What is the real nature of His knowledge, power, hearing, and sight?” the answer is: This is the taʾwīl that no one knows except Allah. How excellent it is to refer every taʾwīl back to the Quran in its entirety.

If it is said, “But the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—prayed for Ibn ʿAbbās, ‘O Allah, make him deeply versed in the religion and teach him the taʾwīl,’ ” we reply: the taʾwīl of injunctions and prohibitions can indeed be known, and the prefixed particle here (the taʾwīl) points to a specific, familiar taʾwīl; he did not say “the taʾwīl of the whole Quran.” The taʾwīl that is denied is the taʾwīl of reports whose realities are known only to Allah, whereas the taʾwīl that is affirmed is the matter whose explanation the servants can grasp. This is like His words, “Are they waiting for anything but its interpretation? The Day its interpretation comes” (Quran 7:53), and His words, “Yet they rejected what they could not encompass in knowledge and whose interpretation has not yet come to them” (Quran 10:39). What is intended here is the taʾwīl of the report concerning future events, for that alone is what is “waited for,” “comes,” and “has not yet come to them.” As for the taʾwīl of commands and prohibitions, it is inherent in the commands themselves, and the taʾwīl of reports about Allah or about those who have passed—if one chooses to include it under the term taʾwīl—is not something awaited.

Allah, exalted is He, knows best, and with Him is success.