Ambiguity ( mutashābih , pl. mutashābihāt ) is the Qurʾānic term most scholars interpret as designating text that lacks clarity or requires further explanation. Mutashābih is from the root sh-b-h , which is also the source of the term shubha ("specious argument"). Muslim hermeneutics has refined this category by distinguishing conceptually the types of ambiguities present in the revealed discourse in particular and in the Arabic language in general. The occasionally uncertain nature of revealed discourse has been explored most extensively in the field of ʿilm uṣūl al-fiqh ("science of the