Ismaili Ta'wil of al-Muhkam wal-Mutashabih — The Clear and the Ambiguous Verses: How 3:7 ('In It Are Verses That Are Muhkam — They Are the Mother of the Book — and Others That Are Mutashabih; Those With Deviation in Their Hearts Follow the Mutashabih Seeking Discord and Seeking Its Interpretation — But Only God Knows Its Interpretation') Is the Locus Classicus for Ismaili Ta'wil, Since the Mutashabih Verses Are Precisely What Ta'wil Is For, and How the Imam Is the One Who Knows the Ta'wil of the Mutashabih

In Ismaili ta'wil, al-Muhkam wal-Mutashabih (المُحكَمُ وَالمُتَشَابِه — The Clear/Foundational and the Ambiguous/Similar; *muhkam*: from *h-k-m*: to be firm, to judge; muhkam = firmly established, unambiguous, foundational; *mutashabih*: from *sh-b-h*: to resemble, to be similar; mutashabih = verses that resemble each other in possible meanings, ambiguous, requiring interpretation; 3:7 'He is the One who sent down upon you the Book — in it are verses that are muhkam [they are Umm al-Kitab — the Mother of the Book] and others that are mutashabih; as for those in whose hearts is deviation [zaygh], they follow the mutashabih seeking discord and seeking its interpretation [ta'wil]; but only God knows its interpretation [ta'wil] — and those firmly rooted in knowledge [al-rasikhun fi al-'ilm] say: We believe in it — all is from our Lord'; the parsing controversy: 3:7 contains a famous syntactic debate; [1] the majority classical reading: 'only God knows its ta'wil — and those firmly rooted in knowledge say: we believe...'; the 'and' [wa] is a conjunction with 'we believe' meaning al-rasikhun don't know the ta'wil but accept it in faith; [2] the minority classical reading: 'only God and those firmly rooted in knowledge know its ta'wil'; the 'and' connects God and al-rasikhun as joint knowers; the punctuation in Arabic manuscripts differed, creating two equally valid readings; what are the mutashabih: [1] verses with unclear referents; [2] verses about God's attributes [hand, face, settling on the throne] that might suggest anthropomorphism; [3] eschatological passages about paradise, hellfire, resurrection; [4] prophetic parables and allegories; [5] the letters at the beginning of 29 surahs [the 'isolated letters' or fawatih]; the classical response: al-Ghazali, al-Razi, and others acknowledged that the mutashabih require ta'wil [figurative interpretation] but disagreed on how far ta'wil could go and who could perform it; Mu'tazili approach: systematic ta'wil of anthropomorphic verses [God's hand = God's power]; Ash'ari approach: accept these verses without asking how [bila kayf]; Ismaili ta'wil of al-muhkam wal-mutashabih: [1] 3:7 as the Quran's own license for ta'wil: the verse explicitly states that the mutashabih exist and that they have a ta'wil [interpretation]; the verse does not say 'there is no ta'wil for the mutashabih' but rather 'God [and those firmly rooted in knowledge] know its ta'wil'; the existence of ta'wil is affirmed; [2] who are al-rasikhun fi al-'ilm: the minority reading [God and the rasikhun know ta'wil] is the Ismaili reading; the rasikhun are the Imam and those who receive ta'wil through the Imam's da'wa; the Imam is the earthly possessor of the Quran's ta'wil; [3] the mutashabih as the batin-layer: the muhkam verses are the zahir [clear prescriptions, narrative, laws]; the mutashabih are the batin-layer — verses that point beyond their surface to the ta'wil that only the Imam knows; [4] the zaygh [deviation] — those who misuse mutashabih: those with 'deviation in their hearts' who 'follow the mutashabih seeking discord' are in ta'wil those who attempt ta'wil without the Imam's authorization; they use the mutashabih's ambiguity to create schism [fitnah]; unauthorized ta'wil is a form of zaygh; [5] umm al-kitab: the muhkam are 'umm al-kitab' [Mother of the Book]; in Ismaili cosmology, the Umm al-Kitab is the original divine archetype from which the revealed books descend; the muhkam verses are the zahir's closest approach to this archetype; [6] the waqf [pause] as an exegetical choice: where scribes put the syntactic pause in 3:7 determined which reading they preferred; Ismaili manuscripts and Ismaili commentators consistently read with the rasikhun as joint knowers of ta'wil) is the Quran's self-referential license for the ta'wil tradition.