In the Footsteps of Martyrs 183pages two different messages meant for two different audiences. The
Quran’s explicit message (zahir) is obvious and accessible to all Mus-
lims through the discipline of tafsir, referred to in the previous chap-
ter. But only the Imam can correctly employ ta’wil to uncover the
Quran’s implicit message (batin). And while the distinction between
tafsir and ta’wil exists in Sunni Islam as well, the Shi‘ah believe that
because the Revelation emanates from sources beyond human com-
prehension, the whole of the Quran consists of symbols and allusions
that only the Imam has the spiritual perfection to elucidate. In the
words of the eighth Imam, Ali ar-Rida, only the person who can cor-
respond the Quran’s implicit verses to its explicit ones can claim
“guidance to the right path.”
The primacy of ta’wil in Shi‘ism had great advantages for the early
Shi‘ah, who were eager to link themselves with Muhammad by uncov-
ering scriptural references that would justify their distinctive beliefs
and practices. Of course, this is a common tactic used by all sectarian
movements who wish to connect themselves to their parent religion.
The early Christians, for example, who were no more than Jews who
believed that the Messiah had come, scoured the Hebrew Scriptures
for allusions to Jesus so as to link their sect with Judaism and fit their
Messiah into the numerous and often conflicting messianic prophe-
cies of the Hebrew Scriptures. In the same way, the Shi‘ah sifted
through the Quran and found it replete with verses that, when prop-
erly interpreted through ta’wil, implicitly expressed the eternal truth
of the Imamate. Consider the following extract from the Quran,
known as “the Verse of Light”:
God is the light of the Heavens and the Earth.
His light is like a niche in the wall in which there is a lamp,
The lamp is within a glass, and the glass is a glimmering star,
Lit with the oil of an olive tree—
A tree neither of the East nor of the West—
Whose oil glows though fire touches it not:
Light upon Light!
God guides to His Light whomever He will.
God gives examples to humanity,
And God has knowledge of everything. (24:35)