Interview with a 700-Year-Old Scholar — How to Interpret the Quran

Ring Composition Quran 3:7

The Quran itself has been miraculously preserved, but its interpretation has remained a source of disagreement, even partly contributing to divisions between Muslims, by definition believers in the Quran. The aya above, a ring composition analysis from Surat Al-Imran 3:7, shows us a path to a middle ground, a guide to interpretation based on the two different kinds of ayat/verses described in sections 1 and 2 above in yellow and bluegreen. Because the scholar Ibn Kathir (c.1300-1373) wrote the explanation, translated into English, that helped me understand its analysis, I interviewed him — remotely, of course — to share with you in his own words.