The Competition in Interpreting the Words of the Qur'an
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. The questioner asks: Is it permissible to hold a competition in interpreting the Book of Allah, where a group in a gathering is asked, "What is meant by the word 'waha' (orchards) in 'waha' ghulab' (orchards of date palms)?" and everyone tries to interpret it from their own knowledge? Is this correct?
The Shaykh:
No, it is not permissible to interpret it by guessing from one's own opinion. If he has knowledge of its meaning, that is one thing; otherwise, he should remain silent and say, "I do not know." One does not interpret the Book of Allah by guessing and conjecture. Yes.
The questioner:
Honorable Shaykh.
The Shaykh:
Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) was asked about the saying of Allah the Exalted, "and fruit and dates" (wa faakah wa abab), "What is 'abab' (dates)?" He said, "Which earth will cover me and which sky will shade me if I say in the Book of Allah something about which I have no knowledge?" It is not permissible to interpret the Qur'an by guessing. Yes.
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. The questioner asks: Is it permissible to hold a competition in interpreting the Book of Allah, where a group in a gathering is asked, "What is meant by the word 'waha' (orchards) in 'waha' ghulab' (orchards of date palms)?" and everyone tries to interpret it from their own knowledge? Is this correct?
The Shaykh:
No, it is not permissible to interpret it by guessing from one's own opinion. If he has knowledge of its meaning, that is one thing; otherwise, he should remain silent and say, "I do not know." One does not interpret the Book of Allah by guessing and conjecture. Yes.
The questioner:
Honorable Shaykh.
The Shaykh:
Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) was asked about the saying of Allah the Exalted, "and fruit and dates" (wa faakah wa abab), "What is 'abab' (dates)?" He said, "Which earth will cover me and which sky will shade me if I say in the Book of Allah something about which I have no knowledge?" It is not permissible to interpret the Qur'an by guessing. Yes.
Source
المنتقى من أخبار سيد المرسلين 16-10-1436هـ — alfawzan.live (55:59)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.