The four topics exhibit distinct levels of evidence. Source text is the Qur’an’s wording and its defensible meaning; explanation and refinement are scholarly attempts to interpret, organize, or translate that meaning; private experience is an account of what an individual claims to have undergone.
Example 1: The phrase taʾwīl al-aḥādīth occurs in Sūrat Yūsuf; a broad historical theory derived from it is human interpretation.
Example 2: Arabic Qur’anic wording is the source; a Persian rendition conveys a selected understanding.
Example 3: a claimed personal effect of a prayer is testimony, not automatically a public religious law.
Separating these levels permits both respect for scholarship and responsible evaluation of its claims.