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= Asas al-Ta'wil = The Fatimid jurist Qadi al-Nu’man’s Foundation of Symbolic Interpretation (Asas al-Ta’wil) is focused on the symbolic interpretation (ta’wil) of the ‘Pillars of Islam’ as acts of worship (‘ibadat), expounded in al-Nu’man’s earlier work. The Ismaili dignitary al-Mu’ayyad fi’l-Din al-Shirazi explains that “[ta’wil] is to return something to its source (awwalih)”. Al-Nu’man, who composed this work under the supervision of the Fatimid Imam al-Mu’izz, adds that the “authority to dispense ta’wil belongs exclusively to those whom God specifically appointed to this task [i.e. the Imams]”. He also emphasizes that the “aim [of the Kitaab Asas al-Ta’wil] is to explain the inner dimension (batin) of what we laid out in the book Da’a’im al-Islam, so that this book may be a source for the inner meaning (batin), just as that one is for the external form (zahir)”