Tafsir by opinion (bi'l-ra'y)

Interpreting the Qur'an by bare opinion (tafsir bil-ray al-mujarrad). Muhammad Rashid Rida reports from Ibn Taymiyya that error in it occurs in two ways: first, when the Qur'an is read to fit a doctrine the interpreter holds, so that the doctrine becomes the root and the Qur'an becomes a branch; and second, when it is explained only by the meaning of the language, without considering the speaker, the one to whom it was revealed and the people addressed ¹.

Rida quotes Ibn Taymiyya on these two errors. He then adds his own comment that forcing the Qur'an to fit the doctrine of partisan followers of sects is the worst kind of innovation, and that it has the character of the blameworthy interpretation by opinion mentioned in a hadith ¹.