Tawil by al Ghazali, İbn Rushd, İbn Taymiyye

"Tawil" which means "interpretation" has been an important and serious discussion topic in religion and philosophy. It is a topic interested not only in Islam or Arabic but in every religion and language. While some scholars in Islamic thought have applied "interpretation" to every text others have rejected it completely. However other scholars neither applied "interpretation" completely nor rejected it completely. They used interpretation in some sense and refrain from it in another senses in a frame of method. Al Ghazali, Ibn Rushd, Ibn Taymiyya are scholars that falls under the third category. The interpretation idea of these three scholars is described and analyzed comparatively in this work. The concept of "interpretation" is held linguistically and the concept is evaluated in its relation with the concept of "explanation" (tafseer) in the first chapter. It is described in the second chapter how Al Ghazali, Ibn Rushd and Ibn Taymiyye defined the concept of "interpretation" and how they construct a relationship between "reason" and "revelation" in the context of these "definitions". Similar interpretation ideas of these three scholars and some examples are examined in that chapter in order to compare their ideas. The interpretation ideas and approaches of these three scholars are compared in the last and third chapter of this work. Their ideas' similarities and differences are presented in a topical way in that chapter. The general examination of findings is done and some suggestions put forward in the conclusion chapter. Keywords: Islamic Thought, Tawil, Al-Ghazzali, Ibn Rushd, Ibn Taymiyya.