What is tafsir, and how is it different from ta'wil?
The difference between tafsir and ta'wil as the two words are used in the Quran — "the best explanation", "this is the interpretation of my vision of before", and "no one knows its interpretation except Allah" — read in al-Tafsir al-Muyassar, al-Safi and al-Mizan.
The word tafsir occurs once in the Quran; ta'wil occurs seventeen times, in fifteen verses across seven surahs, eight of them in Surah Yusuf. This article reads three passages the difference between the two words turns on and, at each one, gives the Sunni reading of al-Tafsir al-Muyassar first, then the Shia readings of al-Safi (al-Fayd al-Kashani) and al-Mizan (al-Tabataba'i).
Quotations from the three commentaries are my renderings of the Arabic.
"The best explanation"
And they do not come to you with an argument except that We bring you the truth and the best explanation.
Al-Muyassar: the idolaters bring you, Messenger, no argument or doubt but We bring you the true answer and the best explanation of it. Al-Safi: "and the best tafsir" — what is best in explanation and meaning, beyond their question. Al-Mizan: tafsir, as al-Raghib said, is going far in bringing out an intelligible meaning, just as fasr is bringing out an intelligible meaning.
All three agree that tafsir is explaining and bringing out the meaning: al-Muyassar says "the best explanation of it", al-Safi "best in explanation and meaning", and al-Mizan "going far in bringing out an intelligible meaning".
"This is the interpretation of my vision of before"
And he raised his parents upon the throne, and they bowed to him in prostration. And he said, "O my father, this is the explanation of my vision of before. My Lord has made it reality. And He was certainly good to me when He took me out of prison and brought you [here] from bedouin life after Satan had induced [estrangement] between me and my brothers. Indeed, my Lord is Subtle in what He wills. Indeed, it is He who is the Knowing, the Wise.
Al-Muyassar: Joseph said to his father: this prostration is the explanation of my dream, which I told you before, in my childhood; my Lord has made it come true. Al-Safi: "this is the ta'wil of my vision of before" — I saw it in the days of my boyhood — "my Lord has made it real": true. Al-Mizan: when he saw his parents and his eleven brothers prostrate, he recalled the dream in which he had seen eleven stars and the sun and the moon prostrating to him, which he had told his father while still small and which his father had interpreted; so he pointed to their prostration and said: "this is the ta'wil of my vision of before; my Lord has made it" — the dream — "real".
All three agree that the dream's ta'wil was what Joseph saw in his childhood coming true: al-Muyassar says "which I told you before, in my childhood; my Lord has made it come true", al-Safi "I saw it in the days of my boyhood", and al-Mizan "which he had told his father while still small". Al-Muyassar and al-Mizan tie it to the prostration of his parents and brothers. Al-Muyassar renders ta'wil here with the word tafsir: "the explanation of my dream".
"No one knows its interpretation except Allah"
It is He who has sent down to you, [O Muhammad], the Book; in it are verses [that are] precise - they are the foundation of the Book - and others unspecific. As for those in whose hearts is deviation [from truth], they will follow that of it which is unspecific, seeking discord and seeking an interpretation [suitable to them]. And no one knows its [true] interpretation except Allah. But those firm in knowledge say, "We believe in it. All [of it] is from our Lord." And no one will be reminded except those of understanding.
Al-Muyassar: He alone sent down to you the Quran: in it are verses clear in meaning, the root of the Book, to which one returns in doubt and to which what differs is brought back; and others ambiguous, open to more than one meaning, whose intent is settled only by joining them to the clear. Those whose hearts are sick and swerving, from ill intent, follow the ambiguous verses alone, to stir doubts among people and lead them astray, and to bend their ta'wil to their false doctrines. None knows the true meanings of these verses but God. Those firmly grounded in knowledge say: we believe in this Quran; all of it came to us from our Lord on the tongue of His Messenger Muhammad, and they refer its ambiguous to its clear; only those of sound minds understand, reason out and reflect on the meanings rightly. Al-Safi: "seeking fitnah" — seeking to turn people from their religion by sowing doubt and confusion and setting the ambiguous against the clear; and: "and seeking its ta'wil" — seeking to interpret it as they desire; "and none knows its ta'wil" — what it must be carried to — "except God and those firmly grounded in knowledge", who are established and secure in it. Al-Mizan: "seeking fitnah" means seeking to lead people astray, for fitnah is close to misguidance in meaning. God is saying: they want by following the ambiguous to lead people astray in God's verses, and something greater still — to reach and lay hold of the ta'wil of the Quran and the sources of the rulings of lawful and unlawful, so as to do without following the clear verses of religion, and so God's religion would be abolished from its root. Ta'wil is from awl, returning: the ta'wil of the ambiguous is the source it returns to, and the ta'wil of the Quran is the source from which it takes its teachings; and: second, ta'wil is not confined to the ambiguous verses: all the Quran has a ta'wil, the clear verse as the ambiguous. Third, ta'wil is not among the concepts that words signify but among real, external things; a verse's having a ta'wil is describing it by what it is connected to. As for using ta'wil for a meaning contrary to a word's apparent sense, that is a usage born after the Quran was revealed; and: as for "those firmly grounded in knowledge", the apparent sense is that the "and" begins a new sentence, as the second term of the division set up at the start of the verse — "as for those in whose hearts is deviation". The meaning is that people take the Book in two ways: some follow what is ambiguous in it, and some, when something in it is ambiguous to them, say "we believe in it; all is from our Lord"; they differ because of the swerving of the heart and the firmness of knowledge.
Where they agree
All three agree that those with swerving in their hearts follow the ambiguous to lead people astray and to bend it to what they want: al-Muyassar says "to stir doubts among people and lead them astray, and to bend their ta'wil to their false doctrines", al-Safi "seeking to turn people from their religion" and "seeking to interpret it as they desire", and al-Mizan "seeking to lead people astray".
Where they differ
They differ in two places. The first is where the sentence stops: al-Muyassar stops at "except Allah" — "none knows the true meanings of these verses but God. Those firmly grounded in knowledge say"; al-Mizan says the "and" before "those firmly grounded" begins a new sentence; al-Safi reads on — "none knows its ta'wil, what it must be carried to, except God and those firmly grounded in knowledge". The second is what ta'wil is: al-Muyassar makes it "the true meanings of these verses"; al-Mizan says ta'wil is not something words signify but a real, external thing, that all the Quran has a ta'wil and not the ambiguous alone, and that using ta'wil for a meaning contrary to a word's apparent sense is a usage born after the Quran was revealed.
What the verses do not say
- They do not define tafsir or ta'wil as technical terms; the definitions are the commentators'.
- They do not use "ta'wil" for turning a word away from its apparent sense.
- Al Imran 7 does not mark where the sentence stops; on this the commentators differ.
Counted on the mushaf
- Tafsir: once, Al-Furqan 33.
- Ta'wil, with its suffixes: seventeen times in fifteen verses across seven surahs.
- In Surah Yusuf alone: eight times in eight verses.
- In Al Imran 7: twice, "seeking its ta'wil" and "no one knows its ta'wil".
Sources
- al-Tafsir al-Muyassar — King Fahd Complex for the Printing of the Holy Quran.
- Tafsir al-Safi — al-Fayd al-Kashani.
- al-Mizan fi Tafsir al-Quran — al-Sayyid Muhammad Husayn al-Tabataba'i.
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