And the Almighty said regarding this meaning: {But those who wronged among them changed [it] to a statement other than that which had been said to them} (Al-A'raf: 162). The clarification of this will follow, God willing, in the mention of contradictory sayings; for every one of the firm yet ambiguous and unspecific sayings, you will find another saying opposing it among the firm and established sayings.

As for the meaning of the Almighty’s saying: {Then Allah establishes His verses}, it means that He—Glory be to Him—explicitly declares the Truth in the decisive verses (Al-Ayat al-Muhkamat) so that the believers may know that it is the Truth, believe in it, and their hearts may find tranquility in it; and so that He may make what Satan throws a trial for the doubters, the persistent, and the disbelievers. Indeed, they have not ceased to be in doubt of it and have followed nothing but the ambiguous (Mutashabih) of His—the Almighty’s—sayings, just as the believers follow only the decisive (Muhkamat), according to the saying of the Almighty: {It is He who has sent down to you the Book; in it are verses [that are] decisive—they are the foundation of the Book—and others unspecific (Mutashabihat). As for those in whose hearts is deviation [from truth], they will follow that of it which is unspecific...} (Aal Imran: 7).