On ta'wil

Esoteric Interpretations of the Qur’an: Foundations of Shia Ismaili Ta’wil

on

Ismaili Gnosis

In current usage, ta’wil is said, and rightly, to be a spiritual exegesis that is inner, symbolic, esoteric, etc. Beneath the idea of exegesis appears that of a Guide (the exegete), and beneath the idea of exegesis we glimpse that of an exodus, of a “departure from Egypt,”, which is an exodus from metaphor and the slavery of the letter.

Henry Corbin, (Avicenna and the Visionary Recital, 29)

The ta’wil, without question, is a matter of harmonic perception, of hearing an identical sound (the same verse, the same hadith, even an entire text) on several levels simultaneously.

Henry Corbin, (Spiritual Body & Celestial Earth, 54)