The Sufis kept their eyes fixed on esoteric aspects of creation; they were too occupied with their inner world to look at the outer one. Their tunnel-like vision prevented them from looking at the things in their true perspective. Their love of esoteric made them look for inner interpretations of the verses; without any regard to their manifest and clear meanings. It encouraged the people to base their explanations on poetic expressions and to use anything to prove anything. The condition became so bad that the verses were explained on the-basis of the numerical values of their words; letters were divided into bright and dark ones and the explanations were
based on that division. Building castle in the air, wasn’t it? Obviously, the Qur’ãn was not revealed to guide the Sufis only; nor had it ad-dressed itself to only those who knew the numerical values of the letters (with all its ramifications); nor were its realities based on astrological calculations. Of course, there are traditions narrated from the Prophet and the Imãms of Ahlu ‘l-bayt (a.s.) saying for example: “Verily the Qur’ãn has an exterior and an interior, and its interior has an interior upto seven (or according to a version, seventy) interiors . . .” But the Prophet and the Imãms gave importance to its exterior as much as to its interior; they were as much concerned with its revelation as they were with its interpretation. We shall explain in the beginning of the third chapter, “The Family of `Imrãn”, that “interpretation” is not a meaning against the manifest meaning of the verse. Such an
interpretation should more correctly be called “misinterpretation”. This meaning of the word, “interpretation”,
came in vogue in the Muslim circles long after the revelation of the Qur’ãn and the spread of Islam. What the Qur’ãn means by the word, “interpretation”, is some-thing other than the meaning and the significance.
