IN THE NAME OF ALLAH, THE BENEFICENT, THE MERCIFUL

THE SCIENCE OF THE CLEAR AND UNCLEAR VERSES (AL-MUHKAMAAT AND AL-MUTASHABIHAAT)

Of all the sciences of the Glorious Qur’an the science of understanding and distinguishing the clear and the unclear verses is indisputably the most important science. It is very crucial and more attention is given to it by the experts on Qur’an.

The term ‘Muhkam’ is driven from the word ‘Hakama’ which literally means ‘prevented’.  A mukham verse means a verse that there is no ambiguity in understanding of its words and their meanings. It has an established meaning which prevents any other meaning. Thus, Muhkam means Clear.

The term ‘Mutashabeh’ literally means something that looks like the other things and hence causes confusion. Almighty Allah in the story of the cow of the Israelites quotes from them:  “Verily, to us the cows are alike (and hence we are confused).” (2:70)

A ‘Mutashabih’ verse is a verse that its meaning due to different possibilities is not clear, and it is open to different interpretations. In other words, its apparent does not reflect its real meaning. Thus, we suggest that ‘Mutashabih’ means ‘unclear’ or ‘ambiguous’.

Divisions of the Qur’an into Muhkam and Mutashabih

The Almighty Allah says:

“Is He Who has sent down to you the Book The Qur’an. In it are verses that are Muhkam (clear), they are the foundation of the Book; and others are Mutashabih (unclear). So as for those in whose hearts there is a deviation they follow that which is unclear thereof, seeking mischief and seeking for its hidden meaning (according to their desire), but none knows its hidden meanings save Allah and those who are firmly grounded in knowledge. They say; We believe in it; the whole of it are from our Lord, and none receive admonition except men of understanding.” (3:7)

Almighty Allah in the above verse of Glorious Qur’an is vividly dividing the verses of the Qur’an into Muhkam and Mutashabih. The Muhkams are reference verses which lay the foundation of the meanings of the Qur’an and to which one shall refer for understanding of the unclear verses. Although the Qur’an is quite explicit that there are clear and unclear Verses in the Qur’an, scholars disagree as whether there is any ambiguous Verse in the Qur’an. The following are the main views:

1. There is no unclear verse in the Qur’an

The first view is of those who deny any ambiguity in the Qur’an. They claim that the Almighty Allah states:  (Qur’an 3:138).

Had the Qur’an been ambiguous it would have not been a plain statement and guidance.

2. The entire Qur’an is ambiguous

Contrary to the first opinion, the common view of the traditionalists (Akhbariyyoun) is that the entire Qur’an is ambiguous. They often base their view on the Verse 23 of Chapter Al-Zumar.

3. There are clear and unclear Verses in the Qur’an

The soundest opinion is to suggest as clearly mentioned in the Qur’an that in fact there are Verses with clear meanings, as there are unclear verses.  We disagree with the first view for the following reasons:

• Verse 7 of chapter 3 clearly divides the verses of the Qur’an into two categories of ‘clear’ and ‘unclear’ verses.

• We agree that Qur’an is a clear statement and guidance for mankind, as stated in chapter 3 verse 138. However, this does not necessitate that all people have to understand the entire Qur’an. As long as they can refer to the experts who know the meaning of the Qur’an and learn from them, it is true to state that Qur’an is a book of guidance for mankind.

• We also agree that Qur’an is a book which its verses are well established as stated in the beginning of chapter 11. However, we suggest that it means the Qur’an in its essence and from the view of its speaker is not ambiguous. Similarly, there is no ambiguity in the Qur’an for he to whom the Qur’an was revealed.

Similarly to suggest that all the verses of the Qur’an are ambiguous contradicts the Qur’an (3:7). Ironically they have even referred to the Qur’an 39 verse 23 to prove their point. Although there is a way to reconcile between the first and the third views, i.e. the Qur’an in its essence is clear, although some of its verses are ambiguous for majority of people due to their own ignorance.

The number of the Unclear Verses

Some of the contemporary scholars of the Qur’an assert that the unclear Verses of the Qur’an in comparison to the clear ones are very few. They suggest that the unclear verses do not exceed two hundreds in number. Moreover, many scholars of the Qur’an suggest there is no unclear Verse in the jurisprudential verses of the Qur’an.

Unfortunately, we can not agree with any of the above claim. Surely, the definition of the scholars for the unclear Verse applies to more than two hundred verses. Similarly some of the jurisprudential verses of the Qur’an are also ambiguous, or else, there would not have been any jurisprudential differences among the Muslims.

The Most Ambiguous Verses of the Qur’an

1. Al-Haroof al-Moqatta’a (the separated letters): Twenty-nine chapters of the Qur’an are prefixed with certain letters of the Arabic alphabet that no one can assert their meanings.

2. Verse 102 of Chapter al-Baqarah :   According to Allamah Tabatabaei there are a lot of possible meanings for this verse (al-mizan )

3. Verse 7 of chapter 3: Amazingly part of the verse that divides the Qur’an into clear and unclear verses is also one of the most controversial unclear verses. As the ambiguity in this verse is related to our discussion, we shall explain.

The Almighty Allah in part of verse 7 chapter 3 states:

“and none knows its hidden meaning save Allah, and those who are firmly grounded in knowledge (they) say: We believer in it.”

If there is a comma and hence we pause after ‘Allah’, then it means only Allah knows the meaning of the unclear Verses, whereas if there is no comma after Allah and the term ‘and ‘after Allah is a coordinating conjunction, then it means Allah as well as those who are firmly grounded in knowledge know the meaning of Unclear Verses.

The scholars of the Qur’an hold three different views for recitation of the above verse

1. Recitation of Pause: (Majority of the Sunni scholars)

2. Recitation of Conjunction : (Majority of the Shia scholars)

3. Both Recitation are correct: (some scholars from the both sides)

We agree with the second view that the term ‘and ‘in the verse is for coordinating conjunction. In addition to the prophetic tradition and that of Ahlul Bait (A.S) we can suggest the following reasons for the preference of the second view:

• There are many verses in the Qur’an that confirm ‘people of knowledge’ know the meanings of the unclear verses. Consider these verses: (29:49, and 16:43, 22:7)

• The Qur’an is the book of guidance. How could Allah command man to reflect on the Qur’an whilst he is unable to understand quite a big portion of it?

• The expression of ‘and those who are grounded in knowledge’ obviously shows a preference for those learned people over others. That means they have obtained type of knowledge that other don’t.

• The result of the first view is to suggest that even the Prophet does not know the meaning of the unclear verses! Would it be possible for a Muslim to hold this view?

• Throughout the Islamic history many Muslims scholars whether Shia or Sunni have interpreted the entire Qur’an

Where there is ambiguity in the Qur’an

The following are some of the main reasons for the phenomenon of ambiguity in the Qur’an:

1. Ambiguity and non restriction of a word to one particular meaning is part of the nature of human language.

2. The Advantage of the Qur’an is that the above phenomenon is treated by revelation of clear Verses.

3. Very often the ambiguity is related to the lack of knowledge of the reader of the Qur’an not the text itself.

4. Many so called ambiguous verses are in fact considered today ambiguous due to misinterpretations of the various Islamic sects that emerged throughout history.

Types of Unclear Verses in Qur’an

Literal

Meaning

Literal & Meaning

Word

Homonym

Strange word

Same meaning, different applications

Sentence

Too short

Too long

Rhetorical

Most of the Verses describing divine Attributes and unphysical worlds.

Due to its quantity

Due to its quality

Whether there is any exception

Due to ignorance about the history of Jahilliyah

Due to unspecified conditions.

Letters

Examples:

1. Letters: The example of the unclear letters are the 'Separated Letters' (al-Horooful-Moqatta').

2. Homonym: The examples of a word which has more than one meaning in the Quran are: "Qaswarah" (74:51) which means 'hunter' and 'lion'. Both of the meanings in the Ayah could be meant. Similarly, 'As'as (81:17) means the arrival of the night as well as its departure.

3. One meaning, different applications: For example, the expression 'by the Ten Nights' (89:2) could mean the first ten nights of Muharram, or the last ten nights of Ramadan or the first ten nights of thul –Hijja.

4. Strange Word: Such as ‘Abb’ (80:31) which means herbage.

5. A sentence that is too short: such as “And if you fear that you shall not be able to deal justly with the orphans, then marry women that are pure for you”. (4:3)

This sentence is too short and hence often the correlation between marriage and not being just to the orphans is not understood. Another example is “And He was in the highest part of the horizon. then He approached and came closer”. (53:7-8). It is not clear who exactly meant by ‘He’ in the Verse.

6. Rhetorical arts: There are many examples in the Qur’an for this cause of ambiguity. For instance, the Almighty Allah with regards to submission and humbleness to parent states: “…… and lower unto them the wing of humility through mercy”. (17:24)

Man does not have wings and hence, the expression of wing is a figure of speech. Similarly, when Allah states: “…..the Hand of Allah is over their hands”. (48:10) it should not be read literally.

7. Due to its quantity: For example, the Almighty Allah states: “then kill the Mushrikeen”. (9:5) surely, the command does not include all the mushrikeen, but as it is not specified in the verse, it has made it unclear.

8. Due to ignorance about the history:  For example, the Almighty Allah states: “Surely, al-Nasee’ is an addition to disbelief”. (9:37)

‘Nasee’ was an Arabic practice during the time of Ignorance in which they would postpone the Sacred Months to justify their wars.

These are just few examples.

Is it permissible to interpret the Unclear Verses?

The general rule concerning the unclear verses is to interpret them according to the clear verses which are the ‘mother of Book’ and the source of reference. Thus, to understand the meaning of “and He is with you wheresoever you may be”. (57:4). We shall refer to “ There is nothing like Him” (42:11) which its meaning is clearer and conclude the ‘ accompaniment’ of  God with man means His Might, knowledge and Supervision over him.

We shall examine some of the unclear verses in our next issue insha Allah.