3.2.10 - Esoteric Interpretation

As for the subject of esoteric interpretation: t’awîl bâtiniy, which is characteristic of the Sufis, the Greatest Shaykh stresses that this interpretation does not contradict or supersede the traditional conventional explanation or exegesis of Quran or other religious texts: tafsîr dhâhiriy. Therefore, it is very important not confuse the Sufis with other esoteric sects, such as the Bataninans or the Assassins. Esoteric interpretation is the allegorical exposition of the Quran, or the quest for its inner meanings. Initially, it was a synonym of conventional interpretation in its earliest use. Both the words t’awîl and tafsîr have been translated to mean explanation, elucidation, interpretation, and commentary, but it came to mean a process of discerning its most fundamental understandings.

In this regards he says:

We have differentiated between symbolic expression and realization so that those who do not know our Way are not led to imagine that the people of God do throw away the conventional meanings, and thus they confuse them with the Bataninans, while they are exalted above that, but they accept the two sides. Our shaykh Abu Madyan used to mutilate both sides separately and say that one who combines between them is complete in Sunnah and knowledge.

[Futuhat: I.654].