هُوَ He الَّذِیْۤ (is) the One Who اَنْزَلَ revealed عَلَیْكَ to you الْكِتٰبَ the Book مِنْهُ of it اٰیٰتٌ (are) Verses مُّحْكَمٰتٌ absolutely clear هُنَّ they (are) اُمُّ the foundation الْكِتٰبِ (of) the Book وَ اُخَرُ and others مُتَشٰبِهٰتٌ ؕ (are) allegorical فَاَمَّا Then as for الَّذِیْنَ those فِیْ in قُلُوْبِهِمْ their hearts زَیْغٌ (is) perversity فَیَتَّبِعُوْنَ [so] they follow مَا what تَشَابَهَ (is) allegorical مِنْهُ of it ابْتِغَآءَ seeking الْفِتْنَةِ [the] discord وَ ابْتِغَآءَ and seeking تَاْوِیْلِهٖ ؔۚ its interpretation وَ مَا And not یَعْلَمُ knows تَاْوِیْلَهٗۤ its interpretation اِلَّا except اللّٰهُؔۘ Allah وَالرّٰسِخُوْنَ And those firm فِی in الْعِلْمِ [the] knowledge یَقُوْلُوْنَ they say اٰمَنَّا We believe بِهٖ ۙ in it كُلٌّ All مِّنْ (is) عِنْدِ from رَبِّنَا ۚ our Lord وَ مَا And not یَذَّكَّرُ will take heed اِلَّاۤ except اُولُوا men الْاَلْبَابِ (of) understanding رَبَّنَا Our Lord! لَا (Do) not تُزِغْ deviate قُلُوْبَنَا our hearts بَعْدَ after اِذْ [when] هَدَیْتَنَا You (have) guided us وَ هَبْ and grant لَنَا (for) us مِنْ from لَّدُنْكَ Yourself رَحْمَةً ۚ mercy اِنَّكَ Indeed You اَنْتَ You الْوَهَّابُ (are) the Bestower رَبَّنَاۤ Our Lord! اِنَّكَ Indeed You جَامِعُ will gather النَّاسِ [the] mankind لِیَوْمٍ on a Day لَّا (there is) no رَیْبَ doubt فِیْهِ ؕ in it اِنَّ Indeed اللّٰهَ Allah لَا (does) not یُخْلِفُ break الْمِیْعَادَ۠ the Promise
(3:7) It is He Who has revealed the Book to you. Some of its verses are absolutely clear and lucid, and these are the core of the Book.5 Others are ambiguous.6 Those in whose hearts there is perversity, always go about the part which is ambiguous, seeking mischief and seeking to arrive at its meaning arbitrarily, although none knows their true meaning except Allah. On the contrary, those firmly rooted in knowledge say: 'We believe in it; it is all from our Lord alone.'7 No one derives true admonition from anything except the men of understanding.
(3:8) They pray to Allah: 'Our Lord! Do not let our hearts swerve towards crookedness after You have guided us to the right way, and. bestow upon us Your mercy. Surely You, only You, are the Munificent Giver!
(3:9) Our Lord! You surely will gather mankind together one Day, a Day about (the coming of which) there is no doubt. Surely Allah never goes against His promise.'
5. Muhkam means that which has been made firmly and perfectly. The muhkam verses mentioned here are those Qur'anic verses which are embodied in clear and lucid language and whose meaning is not liable to any ambiguity and equivocation. The words of these verses are clear pointers to their true meaning and, therefore, it is difficult to subject them to arbitrary interpretation. Such verses form the core of the Holy Book; they are the verses which fulfil the true purpose for which the Qur'an was revealed, and they invite the whole world to Islam. They embody admonition and instruction as well as the refutation of erroneous doctrines and the elucidation of the Right Way. They also contain the fundamentals of the true faith; teachings relating to belief, worship and morality, and mandatory duties and prohibitions. These are the verses which will guide the genuine seeker after Truth who turns to the Qur'an in order to find out what he ought and ought not to do.
6. 'Ambiguous' verses are those whose meaning may have some degree of equivocation. It is obvious that no way of life can be prescribed for man unless a certain amount of knowledge explaining the truth about the universe, about its origin and end, about man's position in it and other matters of similar importance, is intimated to him. It is also evident that the truths which lie beyond the range of human perception have always eluded and will continue to elude man; no words exist in the human vocabulary which either express or portray them. In speaking about such things, we necessarily resort to words and expressions generally employed in connection with tangible objects. In the Qur'an, too, this kind of language is employed in relation to supernatural matters; the verses which have been characterized as 'ambiguous' refer to such matters.
At best, such expressions may serve to either bring man close to or enable him to formulate some view of reality, even if it is a faint one. The more one tries to determine the precise meaning of such verses, the more their ambiguities proliferate, and the more one is confronted with choosing between several plausible interpretations. All this is likely to alienate one progressively further away' from the Truth instead of bringing one closer to it. Those who seek the Truth and do not hanker after the satisfaction of their egocentric quest for exotic superfluities, will be satisfied with the dim vision of reality derived from these verses. They will concentrate their attention instead on the clear and lucid 'core' verses of the Qur'an. It will be left to those who are either out to make mischief and mislead people or who have an abnormal passion for superfluities to devote their attention to hair-splitting discussions about the contents of the 'ambiguous" verses.
7. This might give rise to an unnecessary problem: How can people believe in 'ambiguous' verses when the contents of these cannot be grasped?
The fact is that a reasonable person will believe that the Qur'an is the Book of God through his reading of its clear and lucid verses, rather than by learning fanciful interpretations of the ambiguous verses. Once so convinced, he is not likely to be worried by doubts and anxieties caused by the ambiguities of the verses concerned. One who seeks the Truth is satisfied with the obvious meaning of these verses, and wherever he encounters complications and ambiguities he abstains from pursuing their solution too far. Instead of wasting his time splitting hairs, he is content to believe in the things laid down in the Book of God, without seeking to know them precisely and in detail. He turns his attention, in the main, to questions of a practical nature.