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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Ijtihad: Its Meaning, Sources, Beginnings and the Practice of Ra'y The Qur'an On Muhkamat and Mutashabihat The first verse of the Surat Hud states: "A Book whose verses are set muhkam .... " This can be taken to mean that all the Qur'anic verses are muh­kamat. However, the twenty-third verse of the Surat al-Zumar states: God has sent down the fairest discourse as a Book, consimilar.(mutashabihan) in its opt-repeated.

This can be interpreted to mean that the entire verses of the Qur'an represent mutashabihat. The seventh verse of the Surat Al `Imran states: It is He Who sent down upon thee the Book, wherein are muhkam verses that are the umm al-Kitab, and others are mutashabih. (3: 7) From this verse, it can be inferred that the Qur'anic verses are of two kinds; some are "muhkamat" and some others "mutashabihat. " One's first unstudied impression concerning the above verses is that they may seem contradictory.

However, on a close examination it will become clear that there is no such contradiction whatsoever. For the first verse, which implies that all the Qur'anic verses are muhkamat, signifies that the Divine verses are firm and muhkam in regard to their words and phrases, their arrangement, as well as their meaning and simi­lar other aspects. They do not contain any kind of weakness or infir­mity whatsoever.

The meaning of the second verse quoted above is that all the verses of the Qur'an are similar (mutashabih) in their harmony, consistency, sublimity, clarity, eloquent delivery and miraculous nature. There is neither any disharmony nor any inconsistency in them. The third verse implies that some of the Qur'anic verses are self-­contained, in that their sense does not depend for their full compre­hension on that of the other verses, and these are clear and muhkam.

The other verses which are not such are labelled mutashabihat. This explanation ought to suffice for dispelling any impression of a contradiction. A-Shayhh al-Tusi's Remark: The great Islamic scholar al-Shaykh al-Tusi says something illumi­nating in this regard. He states: Among these verses, there is no inconsistency or contradiction. The first verse denotes that the Qur'an is not vulnerable to any inconsistency or contradiction in its verses. Accordingly, the verses are considered muhkamat.

The second verse conveys the similarity of some verses with some of others.