Taʾwīl in the Qurʾan: What Things Return To

A Qur'anic study of taʾwīl, showing that in the Qur'an it means the outcome to which a matter returns, and how that differs from the later usage of "turning a word away from its apparent meaning."

By Dr. Ahmed Muhammad Ali Abouseif, President of the American Imams Academy (AIA)

Yūsuf (Joseph) says to his two fellow prisoners, before he interprets their dreams: ﴿لَا يَأْتِيكُمَا طَعَامٌ تُرْزَقَانِهِ إِلَّا نَبَّأْتُكُمَا بِتَأْوِيلِهِ قَبْلَ أَن يَأْتِيَكُمَا﴾ ("No food will come to you as your provision but I will inform you of its interpretation before it comes to you") (Yūsuf 12:37). And at the close of the sūrah, after he has seen his parents and brothers prostrate before him, he says: ﴿يَا أَبَتِ هَٰذَا تَأْوِيلُ رُؤْيَايَ مِن قَبْلُ قَدْ جَعَلَهَا رَبِّي حَقًّا﴾ ("O my father, this is the interpretation of my dream of long ago; my Lord has made it come true") (Yūsuf 12:100). Between the two verses two meanings of taʾwīl appear: the first is the explanation of the dream before it happens, and the second is its very occurrence, when its dreamer sees it with his own eyes. This range of meaning is the key to understanding the whole term, and it is what distinguishes it from the "tafsīr" we are used to, and from the "turning of a word away from its apparent sense" that became common among later scholars.

Counting the Term: Seventeen Times, Eight of Them in Sūrat Yūsuf

The noun taʾwīl, in its various forms, occurs seventeen times in the Qur'an, eight of them in Sūrat Yūsuf alone^[1]. In the sūrah they fall under three headings: "the interpretation of events" (taʾwīl al-aḥādīth), where Yūsuf is taught (12:6, 21, 101); "the interpretation of the dream," where he is asked for it (12:36, 37, 44, 45); and then "the interpretation of my dream," where it comes true (12:100). The other nine occurrences are in Āl ʿImrān (3:7, twice), al-Nisāʾ (4:59), al-Aʿrāf (7:53, twice), Yūnus (10:39), al-Isrāʾ (17:35) and al-Kahf (18:78, 82).

The closest thing that gathers all these occurrences together is that taʾwīl in them is what a matter ends in. The phrase ﴿ذَٰلِكَ خَيْرٌ وَأَحْسَنُ تَأْوِيلًا﴾ ("that is better and fairer in outcome") occurs regarding referring a dispute back to God and the Messenger (4:59) and regarding giving full measure and weight (17:35), and it appears that the fairness in it describes the outcome, not the outward form. On the verse of al-Nisāʾ, al-Rāghib reported two views: "fairer in meaning and rendering," and "better in reward in the Hereafter"^[2]; and the two meet in that the fairness is looked at in terms of the end result. In 7:53 we read: ﴿هَلْ يَنظُرُونَ إِلَّا تَأْوِيلَهُ ۚ يَوْمَ يَأْتِي تَأْوِيلُهُ﴾ ("Are they waiting for anything but its fulfilment? On the day its fulfilment comes"), and in 10:39: ﴿بَلْ كَذَّبُوا بِمَا لَمْ يُحِيطُوا بِعِلْمِهِ وَلَمَّا يَأْتِهِمْ تَأْوِيلُهُ﴾ ("Rather, they have denied what they did not encompass in knowledge, and whose fulfilment has not yet come to them"). In these two verses taʾwīl is something that "comes," that is, an event that is awaited, not a statement that is made.

The Meaning of the Root: Returning a Thing to Its End

Al-Ṭabarī says at the verse of Āl ʿImrān: "As for the meaning of taʾwīl in the speech of the Arabs: it is explanation, return, and destination." He then traces it back to its origin, saying: "Its origin is from āla al-shayʾu ilā kadhā, when it came to it and returned," and in it: "awwaltuhu anā: I made it return to it"^[3]. So for him taʾwīl comes from "returning," and it is making a thing return to what it ends in. Al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī said: "Taʾwīl is from al-awl, that is, returning to the origin; and from it comes al-mawʾil, the place to which one returns. It is bringing a thing back to the end intended from it, whether knowledge or action." He explained "its taʾwīl" in the verse of al-Aʿrāf as "its explanation, whose intended end is aimed at," and he added in the same entry: "al-āl is also the state to which its affair returns," and "al-awl is the policy that takes its outcome into account"^[2]. This last point sheds light on Yūsuf, for he combined knowledge of the outcome with a policy that takes it into account. And Ibn ʿĀshūr said in his commentary on the first verse of Yūsuf: "Taʾwīl is bringing a thing back to its reality and its proof"^[4]. This makes clear that "returning a word to a non-apparent meaning" is not the original meaning of the word, but a later technical usage, as will come below.

Three Meanings in the Words of Ibn Taymiyya

Ibn Taymiyya set out at length the difference between what the later scholars call taʾwīl and what the Salaf called it and what the Qur'an spoke of. He said: «فَإِنَّ التَّأْوِيلَ فِي عُرْفِ الْمُتَأَخِّرِينَ مِنْ الْمُتَفَقِّهَةِ وَالْمُتَكَلِّمَةِ وَالْمُحَدِّثَةِ وَالْمُتَصَوِّفَةِ وَنَحْوِهِمْ هُوَ صَرْفُ اللَّفْظِ عَنْ الْمَعْنَى الرَّاجِحِ إلَى الْمَعْنَى الْمَرْجُوحِ لِدَلِيلٍ يَقْتَرِنُ بِهِ» ("For taʾwīl in the usage of the later jurists, theologians, ḥadīth scholars, Sufis and the like is turning a word away from the preponderant meaning to the less preponderant meaning, on the strength of evidence that accompanies it"). Then he said: «وَأَمَّا التَّأْوِيلُ فِي لَفْظِ السَّلَفِ فَلَهُ مَعْنَيَانِ: أَحَدُهُمَا تَفْسِيرُ الْكَلَامِ وَبَيَانُ مَعْنَاهُ» ("As for taʾwīl in the wording of the Salaf, it has two meanings: one of them is the explanation of speech and the clarification of its meaning"), and he mentioned that when al-Ṭabarī says "the discussion of the taʾwīl of His saying such-and-such," what he means is tafsīr^[5]. So these are two meanings, the first among the later scholars and the second among the Salaf.

As for the third meaning, which is the second among the Salaf, it is the one that concerns us here. Ibn Taymiyya said: «هُوَ نَفْسُ الْمُرَادِ بِالْكَلَامِ، فَإِنَّ الْكَلَامَ إنْ كَانَ طَلَبًا كَانَ تَأْوِيلُهُ نَفْسَ الْفِعْلِ الْمَطْلُوبِ، وَإِنْ كَانَ خَبَرًا كَانَ تَأْوِيلُهُ نَفْسَ الشَّيْءِ الْمُخْبَرِ بِهِ» ("It is the very thing that the speech refers to: if the speech is a request, its taʾwīl is the very action requested, and if it is a report, its taʾwīl is the very thing reported"). And he gave an example: «فَإِذَا قِيلَ: طَلَعَتْ الشَّمْسُ فَتَأْوِيلُ هَذَا نَفْسُ طُلُوعِهَا» ("So if it is said, 'the sun has risen,' the taʾwīl of this is the sun's rising itself")^[6]. This is the meaning of "on the day its fulfilment comes" (7:53): the reality that the Book reported comes to pass. It is also the meaning of what Yūsuf said, "this is the interpretation of my dream": what is pointed to is the prostration that took place, not a statement that explains it.

Between Tafsīr and Taʾwīl: What the Arabs Know and What Only God Knows

A distinction between kinds of tafsīr is reported from Ibn ʿAbbās, as Ibn Kathīr relates it. He said: "Tafsīr is of four kinds: a tafsīr no one is excused for not understanding, a tafsīr the Arabs know from their languages, a tafsīr that the firmly grounded in knowledge know, and a tafsīr that none knows except God, Mighty and Majestic"^[7]. This division helps us understand the verse of Āl ʿImrān: ﴿وَمَا يَعْلَمُ تَأْوِيلَهُ إِلَّا اللَّهُ ۗ وَالرَّاسِخُونَ فِي الْعِلْمِ يَقُولُونَ آمَنَّا بِهِ﴾ ("And none knows its interpretation except God. And those firmly grounded in knowledge say: We believe in it") (Āl ʿImrān 3:7).

The imams differed over where to pause. Al-Ṭabarī preferred pausing at the name of God, and gave as his reason that "the firmly grounded" is the subject whose predicate is "they say," because they "do not know the interpretation of the ambiguous verses that God mentioned"^[3]. Ibn ʿĀshūr mentioned that pausing at the name of God is "reported from the majority of the Salaf," and that joining "the firmly grounded" to it is another view, which Imām al-Ḥaramayn attributed to Ibn ʿAbbās: "I am among those who know its interpretation"^[8]. Both views are reported from Ibn ʿAbbās. Al-Ṭabarī transmitted from Ibn Ṭāwūs, from his father, that he used to say: "None knows its interpretation except God," and to say, "The firmly grounded: We believe in it"; and he transmitted from Mujāhid, from him: "I am one of those who know its interpretation"^[3].

Ibn Kathīr separated the two views in a detailed passage he relates from "some of the scholars": "Taʾwīl is used in the Qur'an with two meanings. One is taʾwīl in the sense of the reality of a thing and what its matter returns to… If this is what is meant by taʾwīl, then the pause is at the name of God, because the realities of things and their essence are not known in full clarity except by God." Then he said: "But if the other meaning is intended, which is tafsīr, interpretation and clarification of a thing, as in His saying ﴿نَبِّئْنَا بِتَأْوِيلِهِ﴾ ('Inform us of its interpretation') [Yūsuf 12:36]… then the pause is at ﴿وَالرَّاسِخُونَ فِي الْعِلْمِ﴾ ('and those firmly grounded in knowledge')"^[9]. The meaning is that much of the disagreement comes back to which of the two meanings is intended by taʾwīl.

Knowledge Given to the Interpreter, Not Owned by Him

Now we return to Yūsuf. The verse says: ﴿وَكَذَٰلِكَ يَجْتَبِيكَ رَبُّكَ وَيُعَلِّمُكَ مِن تَأْوِيلِ الْأَحَادِيثِ﴾ ("And thus your Lord will choose you and teach you something of the interpretation of events") (Yūsuf 12:6). The meaning is repeated when he is established in the land: ﴿وَلِنُعَلِّمَهُ مِن تَأْوِيلِ الْأَحَادِيثِ﴾ ("so that We might teach him the interpretation of events") (Yūsuf 12:21), and then on his own tongue at the end of the sūrah: ﴿رَبِّ قَدْ آتَيْتَنِي مِنَ الْمُلْكِ وَعَلَّمْتَنِي مِن تَأْوِيلِ الْأَحَادِيثِ﴾ ("My Lord, You have given me [a share] of sovereignty and taught me something of the interpretation of events") (Yūsuf 12:101). Three places attribute the teaching to God.

On the meaning of "al-aḥādīth," Ibn ʿĀshūr mentioned two possibilities: "that it be the plural of ḥadīth in the sense of a thing that occurs, so that the interpretation of events is bringing occurrences back to their causes and reasons by grasping their realities completely… and it is also sound that al-aḥādīth be the plural of ḥadīth in the sense of a report that is spoken of, so that taʾwīl is the interpretation of dreams"^[4]. On the first view, what Yūsuf was given is knowledge of events, their causes and their outcomes, which is wider than decoding a dream. To this his words to the two prisoners point: ﴿ذَٰلِكُمَا مِمَّا عَلَّمَنِي رَبِّي﴾ ("That is from what my Lord has taught me") (Yūsuf 12:37). The true interpreter attributes knowledge to its source, and does not claim the unseen for himself.

Interpretation That Becomes a Plan

Yūsuf did not stop at the image of the dream, with its cows and ears of grain. He read what it returns to, which is seven years of plenty and seven of hardship, and then built an action upon it: ﴿تَزْرَعُونَ سَبْعَ سِنِينَ دَأَبًا فَمَا حَصَدتُّمْ فَذَرُوهُ فِي سُنبُلِهِ إِلَّا قَلِيلًا مِّمَّا تَأْكُلُونَ﴾ ("You will sow for seven years consecutively; what you harvest, leave it in its ear, except a little of what you eat") (Yūsuf 12:47). He went beyond what he was asked and told them of a following year: ﴿ثُمَّ يَأْتِي مِن بَعْدِ ذَٰلِكَ عَامٌ فِيهِ يُغَاثُ النَّاسُ وَفِيهِ يَعْصِرُونَ﴾ ("Then after that will come a year in which the people will be given rain and in which they will press [fruit]") (Yūsuf 12:49). For him, then, taʾwīl was not a static interpretation but a reading of the outcome that leads to management. Set against that, the king's counselors, when they found no way to the meaning of what the king saw, said: ﴿أَضْغَاثُ أَحْلَامٍ ۖ وَمَا نَحْنُ بِتَأْوِيلِ الْأَحْلَامِ بِعَالِمِينَ﴾ ("A jumble of dreams; and we are not knowledgeable in the interpretation of dreams") (Yūsuf 12:44), and so they made whatever they did not know how to interpret into something that has no interpretation.

Ibn ʿAbbās in ʿUmar's Council: An Interpreter Among the Companions

Taʾwīl in this sense has a human example among the Companions. The Prophet ﷺ prayed for Ibn ʿAbbās and said: «اللَّهُمَّ عَلِّمْهُ الْكِتَابَ» ("O God, teach him the Book")^[10], and in another narration: «اللَّهُمَّ فَقِّهْهُ فِي الدِّينِ وَعَلِّمْهُ التَّأْوِيلَ» ("O God, give him understanding of the religion and teach him taʾwīl")^[11]. Now consider the effect of this prayer. ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, may God be pleased with him, used to bring Ibn ʿAbbās in with the elders of Badr, and some of them felt resentment in themselves and said: Why do you bring this one in with us when we have sons like him? ʿUmar said: He is from where you know. Then one day he asked them about God's saying: ﴿إِذَا جَاءَ نَصْرُ اللَّهِ وَالْفَتْحُ﴾ ("When the help of God and the victory come"), and some of them said: We were commanded to praise God and seek His forgiveness when we are helped and given victory; and some of them were silent. He said to Ibn ʿAbbās: Is that what you say? He said: No. He said: Then what do you say? He said: «هُوَ أَجَلُ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ ﷺ أَعْلَمَهُ لَهُ، قَالَ: ﴿إِذَا جَاءَ نَصْرُ اللَّهِ وَالْفَتْحُ﴾، وَذَلِكَ عَلَامَةُ أَجَلِكَ» ("It is the appointed term of the Messenger of God ﷺ, which God let him know. He said: 'When the help of God and the victory come,' and that is the sign of your term"). ʿUmar said: "I know nothing of it but what you say"^[12].

Ibn ʿAbbās did not nullify what they said, for the command to glorify and seek forgiveness is firmly in the sūrah, and he did not step outside the text. But he asked: to what does this sūrah return? In "the help of God and the victory have come" he saw the end of a mission that has been completed, so that glorification and seeking forgiveness became a preparation for the meeting. This is taʾwīl in the Qur'anic sense: a look at the outcome that opens a door in the text which the one who stopped at the surface did not see, while remaining bound to the text and not departing from it.

Taʾwīl and Looking at the Consequences of Actions

Close to this chapter, the jurists of uṣūl established the principle of looking at consequences. Al-Shāṭibī says: "Looking at the consequences of actions is considered and intended by the Law, whether the actions are in accord or in conflict with it; for the mujtahid does not rule on any act issuing from those held responsible, whether to proceed or to refrain, except after looking at what that act will lead to"^[13]. Among the evidences for this in the Sunna is the Prophet's ﷺ refraining from killing a man among the hypocrites when ʿUmar asked his permission, and his reason in his words: «لَا يَتَحَدَّثُ النَّاسُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا يَقْتُلُ أَصْحَابَهُ» ("People should not say that Muḥammad kills his Companions")^[14]. He looked at what the matter would lead to in people's hearts and in his call.

Between this and Yūsuf's taʾwīl there is a connection in origin and a difference in degree. Yūsuf was given knowledge of the outcome by his Lord, whereas the mujtahid derives it by the indications of reality and the evidences of the Law, and does not claim knowledge of the unseen. By this the disciplined exercise of ijtihād is distinguished from guesswork.

Blameworthy Taʾwīl: Seeking Discord and Seeking Interpretation

In Āl ʿImrān itself there is also blame for those who ﴿فَيَتَّبِعُونَ مَا تَشَابَهَ مِنْهُ ابْتِغَاءَ الْفِتْنَةِ وَابْتِغَاءَ تَأْوِيلِهِ﴾ ("follow what is ambiguous in it, seeking discord and seeking its interpretation") (Āl ʿImrān 3:7). Ibn Kathīr said: "'And seeking its interpretation' means: distorting it to what they want." And Ibn ʿĀshūr distinguished between seeking interpretation and seeking discord with his words: "Seeking its interpretation is not in itself blameworthy… the blame lies only in that they seek an interpretation for which they are not qualified, so they interpret it in line with their whims"^[15]. What is blameworthy, then, is interpretation by whim, not looking at the outcome and not explaining the ambiguous with its proofs. By this difference the sincere in taʾwīl is known from the manipulator: the first returns the text to what it leads to by sound evidence, and the second returns the text to what he himself wants.

What Marks the True Interpreter?

From reflecting on the examples above, four traits of the true interpreter emerge. The first is knowledge attributed to God, as Yūsuf said, "from what my Lord has taught me," and as the Prophet's ﷺ prayer for Ibn ʿAbbās was a petition and not a claim. The second is that he does not stop at the form, but asks: to what does this return? As Ibn ʿAbbās asked about Sūrat al-Naṣr. The third is that he ties interpretation to action, as Yūsuf built a plan for the economy on the king's dream. The fourth is that he is wary of claiming the unseen, so he distinguishes between the knowledge he was given and what God withheld, and does not claim to have grasped the essence of what everything returns to.

In Our Lives: Do Not Seal the Verdict Before You See the Outcome

We judge many events in our lives by their surface: the loss of a job, a delayed marriage, an illness, a loss. The Qur'anic method teaches us not to seal a verdict on an event before we see what it returns to. This does not mean claiming certainty that every disliked thing is good, for the verse ﴿وَعَسَىٰ أَن تَكْرَهُوا شَيْئًا وَهُوَ خَيْرٌ لَّكُمْ﴾ ("It may be that you dislike a thing while it is good for you") (al-Baqara 2:216) is a hope and not a certainty in every case. But it teaches patience and breadth of view. In the story of Yūsuf, his being thrown into the well, his sale and his imprisonment were all events whose outcome could not be seen, until it was disclosed at the end of the sūrah, and he said: ﴿هَٰذَا تَأْوِيلُ رُؤْيَايَ مِن قَبْلُ﴾ ("This is the interpretation of my dream of long ago"). And his father's words ﴿فَصَبْرٌ جَمِيلٌ﴾ ("So patience is most fitting") (Yūsuf 12:18) are nothing but patience over what has not yet shown its outcome.

Conclusion

Taʾwīl in the Qur'an is the answer to a single question: to what does this return? God taught it to Yūsuf in dreams, gave some of it to His servants in understanding and reflection, and kept its complete reality with Himself for the day its fulfilment comes. A Muslim must act on what he knows, be patient over what has not yet shown its outcome, and beware of making taʾwīl a ladder to his own whim. We ask God to prepare for us right guidance in our affair: ﴿رَبَّنَا آتِنَا مِن لَّدُنكَ رَحْمَةً وَهَيِّئْ لَنَا مِنْ أَمْرِنَا رَشَدًا﴾ ("Our Lord, grant us mercy from Yourself, and prepare for us right guidance in our affair") (al-Kahf 18:10).