Mutashabih verses in the Qur’an

What is the reason for the mutashabih verses in the Qur’an?

The Qur’an is not a book that addresses the people of a particular area at a particular time. On the contrary, it is universal, speaking to all people at all times. Accordingly, whatever principles and messages it has brought are able to be grasped and understood by all people, no matter where or when they live. Such intelligibility can only be achieved with the expressions that the Qur’an employed in its approach to and introduction of matters; that is, people at all times should be able to perceive the implications of the expressions used in the Qur’an to the degree of comprehension that they have reached at the time in which they live. Such a condition is secured and maintained by the existence of the mutashabih, or intricate, verses of the Qur’an.

The following example might help to make the matter clearer: Suppose that you are to explain the radio to an audience that has a scientific understanding from many centuries earlier. Naturally, such a people are unaware of even electricity, let alone information about electro-magnetic waves, transistors, transmitters, receivers, or studios, all of which are required for radio technology. Therefore, it would be best to tell them, for instance, that the radio is a speaking box. Such a description is, in fact, not even 1% of the facts inherent in radio technology. Since it is impossible to present to such an audience all the facts in all their aspects, the best way to tell them about the radio is to compare it to things they know, using certain words that are suitable for their level of comprehension. This comparison of the radio, on the one hand, makes it more easily understandable, while, on the other, people are better able to understand that the radio is a complicated piece of machinery which is difficult to explain. What is expected of such an audience is to believe in the ideas and knowledge they can glean from the description without having any overly detailed or complicated explanations. Otherwise, they might be inclined to unrealistic or wrong deductions and may end up saying: “The radio should have a mouth if it speaks and it should have a tongue if it has a mouth. It should also feed itself.” Likewise, interpreting mutashabih verses according to one’s own preconceptions, and contrary to their context, would result in the same unrealistic deductions that God reproaches in the Qur’an.
Because of the realities of human life, people place, in most cases, more importance on relative truths than on absolute ones. For instance, largeness and smallness, abundance and scarceness, beauty and ugliness, nearness and distance, or heat and cold are all relative concepts and may vary from person to person or from situation to situation. Human life continues its existence dependent on these relativities.
What’s more, time progresses, conditions change, human information increases, and there are as many levels of understanding as there are people. The Qur’an is a treasury of realities that addresses all humanity – present and future generations – until the Final Day. It is full of lessons, and it speaks to all levels of understanding. Such addressing to different understanding levels with the very same words is attained with the mutashabihat (plural for mutashabih) in the Qur’an.

The creation, like a tree, has a tendency toward maturation and perfection. Humanity also has the same tendency toward advancement. To carry on with the metaphor, the tendency for progression is like the seed that gradually develops as a result of many experiences. Arts and sciences develop and mature when the seed is nurtured by various ideals and thoughts. The Divine wisdom of the Absolute Sovereign willed His Supreme Book to contain mutashabihat in various categories. Through these mutashabih expressions the Qur’an becomes the source of countless and limitless meanings. God Almighty has not made it possible for His servants to be able to understand such matters in only one way with one single meaning; rather, He has kept the doors open for the human mind and intellect to exercise personal efforts and judgment ( ijtihad) so that we can benefit from the blessings of the God-given faculty of understanding and perception. As a result of this incentive to study the Qur’an, people are invited to reflect on the Book and scholars are prompted to discover the hidden beauties of the Qur’an.

Let us not forget that God Almighty has clearly explained in the muhkam (perspicuous) verses all the basics of faith, acts of worship, interrelations of human beings and moral principles for which human beings are accountable. Although the genuine purposes of the Qur’an have been laid out by these muhkam verses which convey a firm and unequivocal meaning, it would be neither right nor proper to expect each and every verse of the Qur’an to be understood and comprehended by everybody all at the same level. God Almighty speaks to human beings in a way that they can understand. The Qur’an does not contain any words that are entirely incomprehensible for human beings. According to their levels of understanding and the scientific knowledge of the time, God’s servants can perceive the implications of the mutashabih verses, but they cannot fully encompass them in their knowledge. Accordingly, it is possible to derive meanings even from the verses that pertain to God’s Attributes, which are from the mutashabih verses.

Obviously, as we cannot grasp His Attributes in all their reality, we abstain from likening God to His
creatures. It should also be noted that we must take the muhkam verses as criterion and understand the mutashabih verses in the light of the muhkam ones, as we cannot perceive their true nature fully or the divine purpose behind them. We believe in whatever meaning God Almighty intended in those verses that have more than one dimension and which are known by God alone in all their reality. This inadequacy of
knowing everything in full in the Book is evidence that it was revealed by God Almighty, Who is the only Owner of the absolute knowledge.

 

Akgul, Muhittin (2009). The Quran in 99 Questions (Abdullah Erdemli Trans.). New Jersey: Tughra Books. (Originally published in Turkish as Kur’an İklimine Seyahat)