Yet, sufficient deliberation upon Quranic verses and the...

Yet, sufficient deliberation upon Quranic verses and the hadith of the Household of the Prophet demonstrates clearly that the Holy Quran with its attractive language and eloquent and lucid expression never uses enigmatic or puzzling methods of exposition and always expounds any subject in a language suitable for that subject. What has been rightly called ta’wil, or hermeneutic interpretation of the Holy Quran is not concerned simply with the denotation of words.

Rather, it is concerned with certain truths and realities that transcend the comprehension of the common run of men; yet it is from these truths and realities that the principles of doctrine and the practical injunctions of the Quran issue forth. The whole of the Quran possesses the sense of ta’wil, of esoteric meaning, which cannot be comprehended directly through human thought alone.

Only the Prophets and the pure among the Saints of God who are free from the dross of human imperfection can contemplate these meanings while living on the present plane of existence. On the Day of Resurrection , the ta’wil of the Quran will be revealed to everyone. This assertion can be explained by pointing to the fact that what forces man to use speech, create words, and make use of expressions is nothing other than his social and material needs.

In his social life, man is forced to try to make his fellow men understand his thoughts and intentions and the feelings that exist within his soul. To accomplish this end, he makes use of sounds and hearing. Occasionally also he uses to a degree his eyes and gestures. That is why between the mute and the blind, there can never be any mutual comprehension, for whatever the blind man says, the deaf cannot hear, and whatever the mute makes understood through gestures the blind man cannot see.

The creation of words and the naming of objects have been accomplished with a material end in view. Expressions have been created for those objects, states, and conditions which are material and available to the senses or near to the sensible world. As can be seen in those cases where the person’s address lacks one of the physical senses, if we wish to speak of matters that can be comprehended through the missing sense, we employ a kind of allegory and similitude.