[The Ruling on Whoever Interprets Some Verses with an Obscure and Strange Interpretation]

Answer – and Allah is the One who grants success and help: The interpretation you have mentioned is a strange and objectionable interpretation; it is not known from the Imams of the Ahl al-Bayt (Peace be upon them), nor from their scholars, nor from all the Zaydis. Here are the books of tafsir of the Ahl al-Bayt (Peace be upon them) and their scholars and their followers, present [before us], and likewise their books of hadith and their doctrines in fundamentals and branches; all of them are free of this strange, objectionable interpretation. What we know of this kind of interpretation and what resembles it is that it belongs to the tafsir of the Batiniyyah, not to the tafsir of the Zaydis.
Clarifying the Proof for the Falsity of this Interpretation
We say: The Qur’an was sent down by Allah, exalted is He, in the language of the Arabs, as He, exalted is He, said: "an Arabic Qur’an, without any deviation" [al-Zumar:28], and as He, exalted is He, said: "in a clear Arabic tongue" [al-Shuʿara’:195], and many other verses indicating that the Qur’an was sent down in the language of the Arabs and in their tongue.
Based on that, every interpretation by which verses of the Noble Book are interpreted contrary to what the Arabic language entails is a false interpretation, a distortion of the verses of Allah, deviation regarding them, and speaking about Allah with what He did not say.
If it is said: What do you object to? Perhaps Allah, glorified is He, has singled out some of His friends (awliya’) with knowing the interpretation and ta’wil of the Qur’an, so that He inspires to him what He does not inspire to others.
We say: We do not deny that Allah, exalted is He, may single out some of His friends with additional understanding and may support him with lights of knowledge. And there is no doubt that the Messenger (May Allah bless him and his family and grant them peace) was the purest of mankind in intellect and the most complete of them in understanding. Yet, in spite of that, nothing has been transmitted from him of the interpretations that we hear from the Batiniyyah and those who hide such things. And He, glorified is He, said to His Prophet (May Allah bless him and his family and grant them peace): "And We have sent down to you the Reminder that you may make clear to the people what has been sent down to them" [al-Nahl:44]. And in fact, the Messenger (May Allah bless him and his family and grant them peace) did make clear to the people what Allah, exalted is He, sent down in His Book, and he (May Allah bless him and his family and grant them peace) did not die until he had completed the clarification in full.
If it is said: So where is the clarification by which the Messenger (May Allah bless him and his family and grant them peace) clarified what was sent down of the Qur’an?
We say: The clarification came in the Sunnah, in word and deed. So whatever is authentically established from the Prophet (May Allah bless him and his family and grant them peace) is clarification and tafsir of what is in the Book of Allah. And the Commander of the Faithful ʿAli ibn Abi Talib (Peace be upon him) was the banner of guidance, the one who clarified to people what they differed about after the Prophet (May Allah bless him and his family and grant them peace), and the Commander of the Faithful did not burden himself with interpretations and ta’wil other than what came from the Prophet (May Allah bless him and his family and grant them peace). And likewise the Imams of the Ahl al-Bayt (Peace be upon them) throughout history did not come with anything from their own selves.
Furthermore, we say: The way (sunnah) of Allah, exalted is He, has passed in His servants that He has bound them with obligations (taklif). For that reason He, glorified is He, made them possessors of choice, and He provided for them the power and capability. Then He, majestic is His affair, clarified for them the causes of perfection and the causes of ruin, the causes of good and the causes of evil. Then He, exalted is He, invited them to the causes of His mercy, and warned them against the causes of His punishment. On this basis, the obtaining of His mercy, exalted is He, is tied to the obtaining of its causes, whether that be of the enjoyments and adornments and rewards of this world, or of the reward of the Hereafter, its bliss and its degrees. So obtaining provision, for example, is tied to obtaining causes and preliminaries that are indispensable, and so on.
Knowledge also is tied to the obtaining of causes and preliminaries that are indispensable. Among these is: listening to knowledge. Through this way and by this path the Prophet (May Allah bless him and his family and grant them peace) took knowledge; Jibril (Peace be upon him) used to come to the Prophet (May Allah bless him and his family and grant them peace) in the form of Dihyah al-Kalbi and recite the Qur’an to him.
Likewise, the Commander of the Faithful (Peace be upon him) benefited from knowledge by listening to the Prophet (May Allah bless him and his family and grant them peace), and al-Hasan and al-Husayn (Peace be upon them) from their father, then the Imams (Peace be upon them) [from those before them]. And likewise, the scholars from among the Companions, and those who came after them from the scholars of the Ummah, only benefited from knowledge by listening and direct taking from the scholars and shaykhs.
Yes, in these later times there is, in addition to listening, a necessity for fully knowing the Arabic language; because the Qur’an, as we have mentioned, was sent down in a clear Arabic tongue. So acquiring knowledge of the meanings of the Qur’an is tied to acquiring complete knowledge of the Arabic language. The more complete the knowledge of the Arabic language is, the more complete and sound the knowledge of the Qur’an will be.
Then, along with that, there must be illumination in the heart, increased understanding, and sharpness of intellect. All of that depends on taqwa (God-consciousness), guidance, ihsan (excellence), and humility; exactly as He, majestic is His affair, said: "And those who are guided – He increases them in guidance" [Muhammad:17], and "If you fear Allah, He will grant you a criterion" [al-Anfal:29], and "And when he reached his full strength, We gave him judgment and knowledge; and thus do We reward the doers of good" [Yusuf:22], and "I will turn away from My signs those who behave arrogantly upon the earth without right" [al-Aʿraf:146]. So when all of that is present in the one who reflects upon the Book of Allah, exalted is He, he becomes capable of understanding the secrets of the Qur’an, its sciences, its rulings, its tafsir and its ta’wil. Then, nothing of that person’s ta’wil and tafsir is accepted except what is in accordance with what the Arabic language entails: either explicitly in wording, or by indication, or by allusion; or by clear text, or apparent meaning, or metaphor; or by any path of indirect indication (kinayah), whether by suggestion (talwih), or symbol (ramz), or hint (isharah), or… and so on.
And as we said previously, since the Qur’an was sent down in the language of the Arabs, it is obligatory that the words of the Qur’an be interpreted according to what the Arabs know of their meanings, and nothing else. So the illumination that Allah, exalted is He, grants to some of His friends is only in order for them to know the realities of the Qur’an and its metaphors, its indirect expressions, its indications, its implied meanings and its explicit ones, the indications of requirement, indication, and allusion, suggestion and symbol, specification and generalisation, and so on, up to the end of what the language of the Qur’an contains of the secrets of eloquence and proofs of inimitability. Through these, the rulings of the Qur’an are extracted.

Source: Min Thimār al-ʿIlm wa al-Ḥikmah vol.3