a wording-self-manifest sense, still open to restriction
General Technical Meaning
The ẓāhir of an utterance is the sense made manifest to a hearer by the wording itself, which nevertheless remains open to taʾwīl and to restriction.
In ʿAllāmah Ṭabāṭabāʾī’s Works
For Ṭabāṭabāʾī, the Qurʾānic ẓāhir or ẓahr is the outward meaning that first presents itself from a verse—the outward import of its wording. It is not discarded in favor of the inner: he says that the Prophet and Imams gave regard to the outer just as they did to the inner. Yet it is not an absolute or exhaustive surface, because the Qurʾān has grades of intended meaning and outer and inner are relative—a meaning may be inner in relation to one outer grade and outer in relation to another.
Source: al-Mīzān fī Tafsīr al-Qurʾān
Read in context
Open a passage in the edition where this term is linked.