ẓāhir — bāṭin is the concealed intent meant by the ẓāhir
General Technical Meaning
The bāṭin is the concealed purpose intended by the ẓāhir. In Ibn Rushd’s formulation, the ẓāhir consists of representative images set forth for those without access to demonstration, while the bāṭin is the meanings disclosed to people of demonstration.
Reader note. This entry is limited to bāṭin as a concealed meaning in relation to the ẓāhir. It does not cover every esoteric or mystical use of bāṭin.
In ʿAllāmah Ṭabāṭabāʾī’s Works
For Ṭabāṭabāʾī, the Qurʾānic bāṭin is the meaning that lies beneath the ẓāhir. A verse may have one inner meaning or many, near to the outward meaning or remote from it with an intermediary between them. Bāṭin is therefore relational rather than an absolute hidden compartment: within the Qurʾān's grades of intended meaning, a level can be inner relative to one outward level and outer relative to another. Ṭabāṭabāʾī says that the Prophet and Imams gave the inner regard just as they did the outer, but this hermeneutical identity does not include the ontological “inward” of worlds described in the separate bāṭin entry.
Source: al-Mīzān fī Tafsīr al-Qurʾān
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