A New Glance at " Definitive and Metaphorical Verses"

The issue of “definitive and metaphorical” (muḥkamāt and mutashābihāt) is among the issues much discussed in various Islamic sciences, which is often brought up following āya 7 of Sūrat Āl-i Imrān, ﴾Parts of it are definitive verses, which are the mother of the Book, while others are metaphorical.﴿ This paper attempts to examine the content of this noble āya and prove that, firstly, ﴾āyātun muḥkamāt﴿ (definitive verses) does not mean “manifest verses” and ﴾mutashābiḥāt﴿ (metaphorical) does not mean “succinct and ambiguous verses”, and that ta’wīl (esoteric exegesis) does not mean interpretation. Secondly, what is meant by “definitive verses” is that the verses sent down to the Prophets in various copies of Revealed Scriptures have not been distorted and transformed and that it is called “Umm al-Kitāb” (Archetypal Book). And what is meant by ﴾āyātun mutashābihāt﴿ is the verses that are the same in subject in some copies of the Revealed Scriptures and in some other copies they are different; therefore, ‘‘mutashābih” means the same as one another.