The word · The Qur’an
المُحْكَمُ وَالمُتَشابِه
Muhkam and Mutashabih
The clear verses whose meaning is decisive, and the verses that can carry more than one meaning.
Also written · Muhkam · Muhkamat · Mutashabih · Mutashabihat · Mutashaabih · Muhakam · clear and ambiguous verses · decisive verses · allegorical verses
The meaning
What Muhkam and Mutashabih means in Islam
The Qur'an draws the distinction itself, in Surah Al Imran, and warns against those who chase the ambiguous looking for discord. Muhkam verses are the backbone: the commands, the prohibitions, the plain statements. Mutashabih covers what is genuinely open to more than one reading, and matters of the unseen whose reality many scholars leave to Allah rather than forcing into a shape.
Evidence · Qur’an · Stated directly in the Qur’an
Read beside it
Words that sit beside it
- Ta'wilInterpretation, and in a second sense the reality a statement finally turns out to refer to.التَّأْويل
- TafsirExplanation of the Qur'an: what a verse means, why it came, and what it asks of you.التَّفْسير
- Huruf Muqatta'atThe single letters that open twenty nine surahs, such as Alif Lam Mim, recited letter by letter.الحُروفُ المُقَطَّعَة
- AyahA verse of the Qur'an, and in ordinary Arabic a sign.آيَة
More from The Qur’an
- Al-Ahruf as-Sab'ahThe seven modes in which the Qur'an was revealed, an ease for the community; what a mode is stays disputed.الأَحْرُفُ السَّبْعَة
- HifzMemorising the Qur'an by heart, traditionally with a teacher who hears you every day.الحِفْظ
- Jam' al-Qur'anThe gathering of the Qur'an into one written volume, carried out under Abu Bakr and then Uthman.جَمْعُ القُرْآن
- MufassirA scholar who writes or teaches tafsir, trained in Arabic, the readings, the Sunnah and the occasions.المُفَسِّر
- Qur'anThe speech of Allah revealed to Muhammad in Arabic over about twenty three years, preserved word for word.القُرْآن
- Tafkhim and TarqiqHeavy and light pronunciation: some letters fill the mouth, others stay thin.التَّفْخيمُ وَالتَّرْقيق