turning an expression away from its apparent meaning to a meaning it can bear
General Technical Meaning
Taʾwīl is turning an expression away from its apparent sense to another sense it can bear — classically, from the literal signification to a figurative one — where the reading adopted accords with the Book and the Sunna; the word originally means reverting.
Reader note. This is the received hermeneutical sense of taʾwīl. In the Introduction to al-Mīzān, Ṭabāṭabāʾī explicitly does not treat Qurʾānic taʾwīl as a meaning or concept, so his account should not be read as an instance of this general definition.
In ʿAllāmah Ṭabāṭabāʾī’s Works
For Ṭabāṭabāʾī, the Qurʾān's taʾwīl is the actual, objective reality upon which its statements of ruling, exhortation, and wisdom depend. It belongs to every verse, muḥkam and mutashābih, and is neither a concept or meaning signified by words nor an intended non-apparent sense; Qurʾānic wording brings those realities near to human understanding approximately, as parables do. This account concerns Qurʾānic taʾwīl and does not include the separate glossary sense of dream interpretation.
Source: al-Mīzān fī Tafsīr al-Qurʾān
Read in context
Open a passage in the edition where this term is linked.