Ijtihad Its Meaning Sources Beginnings and the Practice of Ray [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Verily, God is powerful over everything. (2:20)

He has not begotten, nor He has been begotten. (112:3)

... Nothing is like Him .... (42:11)

The meaning of the above verses
is quite distinct and clear. They can be understood without any reflection. The
following is an example of a mutashabih verse:

Divorced women shall wait by themselves for three quru' .... (2:228)

In the above example, the word quru'
has two different meanings in Arabic. One meaning is menstruation (haya) and the other is purity from
menses (tuhr). Because of this a kind
of doubt has come about for jurisprudents "in understanding it. Some of
them interpret it as purity', while others take it to mean menstruation.' In
the following verse:

...Or he makes remission in whose hand is the knot of marriage ....
(2:237)

it is not clear whether the one
who makes remission is the guardian or the husband, for it can mean either of
them. In another example:

O believers, when you stand up to pray, wash your faces, and your hands
up to (ila) the elbows .... (5:6)

it is not clear whether the word
?? is used in the sense of inclusion or in the sense of extreme limit' and
whether the extremity is to be included, from the viewpoint of the rule of
ablution, in the part of the hand to be washed or not. Furthermore, in the
verse:

...And if you can find no water, then have recourse to wholesome
dust..., (4:43)

the meaning and significance of
the word said is not clear. It can be
understood to mean either the ground surface' or soil.' Also, in the case of
the verse:

...And wipe your faces and your hands'..., (4:43)

it is unclear as to whether or
not the word aydi (hands) indicates
only the back of the palm, or includes the wrist and the forearm, or includes
the forearm and the elbow, or the forearm together with the elbow and the upper
arm.

In another verse: (or if you have touched women [ 4:43 ]) the
meaning and significance of the word lams
(touch) is unclear as well. Does it mean touching by the hand or sexual
intercourse?

There are many other examples,
including some cited below:

...Then He sat upon the Throne ....(7:54)

...Yet the Face of thy Lord abides ....(55:27)

...And I breathed in him (Adam) of My Spirit ... (15:29)

...God's hand is above their hands ...(48:10)

...And We shall set up the just balances for the Resurrection Day...(21:47)

And thy Lord comes, and the angels rank on rank. (89:22)

...And they devised, and God devised .... (3:54)

There is some ambiguity or the
other in all the above verses. Their proper understanding requires a
comprehensive and expert knowledge of the Islamic sources and Qur'anic
concepts, necessitating in particular reference to the Ahl al‑Dhikr, the
Household of Revelation, about whom the Glorious Qur'an says

... Question the People of the Remembrance, if you do not know. (21:7)

The Hidden Meanings of Qur'anic
Verses

Just as the Qur'an contains mutashabihat and mujmalat, it also contains hidden meanings. That is, besides the
literal meanings of the words and their apparent, ordinary sense, other
meanings and concepts underlie the same that are beyond the grasp of many. Just
as the mutashabihat and mujmalat cannot be understood without reference
to the Ma'sumun (A), the grasp of what lies beyond the apparent meaning of
Qur'anic words, too, cannot be attained without reference to the Household of
the Revelation.

Marhum Allamah Majlisi, in his most precious book Bihar al'anwar (vol.92, p.78)has
reported a hadith:

Verily, the Qur'an came down on
seven letters. Every one of its verses has an exoteric and esoteric aspect, and
every one of its letters has a hadd (lit.
limit) and matla' (lit. beginning).

In Hilyat al‑ awliya', Abu Nu'aym has quoted the above hadith in
the following manner:

Verily, the Qur'an has come down
on seven letters. Every one of its letters has an exoteric and esoteric aspect,
and every verse is with 'Ali (A).

Al‑'Imam al‑Sajjid (A) says:

...The Book of God is constituted
of four things: ibarah (diction, text),
isharah (indication), lata'if
(subtleties) and haqa'iq (realities). The ibarah isfor the common people, isharah is for
the elect, lata'if are for the awliya' and haqa'iq for the
prophets. (Bihar al‑'anwar, vo1.92, p.20)

Al‑'Imam al‑Baqir (A)
says:

The Qur'an has a batn (inward or esoteric aspect) and
that batn (in turn) has a batn. And it has 'a zahr (outward
or exoteric aspect) and the zahr has a zahr ... and there is
nothing farther from the intellect of men than tafsir of the Qur'an. The
beginning of an ayah may concern something and its end some other thing, and it
is continuous speech that is susceptible to different interpretations. (Bihar, vo1.92, p.95)