It is in the commentaries...

It is in the commentaries, based on the clarification afforded by the hadith and written by those who are qualified in the true sense, that man comes to understand explicitly and in more extended form what is contained often implicitly and in a contracted form in the Qur’an.[^2] a) The principles of Shi’i tafsir • The exoteric and esoteric aspects of the Qur’an Among the principles of the Shi’i tafsir is that the Qur’an has an outer dimension ( zahir) and an inner dimension ( batin) and the simple surface text of a verse unfolds multiple meanings and exemplifies a feature to be found throughout the Qur’an.[^3] Indeed the Qur’an is meant for men and women of any level of intellect and from any social background, and “since the expounding of subtle knowledge is not without danger of misinterpretation, the Qur’an directs its teachings primarily at the level of the common man.

The Qur’an reveals itself in a way suitable for different levels of comprehension so that each benefits according to his own capacity.” Also certain verses contain metaphors which indicate divine gnosis far beyond the common man’s understanding but which nevertheless become comprehensible through their metaphorical form.[^4] These exoteric and esoteric aspects of the Qur’an have also been identified with the principles of tafsir and ta’wil respectively, Tafsir being the explanation of the external aspect and the literal exegesis of the Qur’an using different fields like Arabic grammar, poetry, linguistic, jurisprudence or history as references to elucidate the difficulties of the literal text, and Ta’wil signifying “to take back or reconduct something to its origin and archetype ( asl )”.[^5] The basis in any case remains the corpus of teachings and hadith of the Imams who expounded the rules of the plurality of meanings in the Qur’an.[^6] In other words, Ta’wil or symbolic and hermeneutic interpretation enables penetration into the inner meaning of the Sacred Text, which in fact entails a reaching back to its Origin.

The idea of penetrating into the inner meaning of things can be seen everywhere in Islam. But it is particularly in the case of the Qur’an that ta’wil is applied, especially by the Sufis and the Shi’as[^7].[^8] There is considerable disagreement as to the meaning of ta’wil , and it is possible to count more than ten different views.