He favored over them among the mute and those bound of tongue, (1) for God—exalted be His mention—said: {A creature who is brought up among ornaments and who in conflict cannot make itself clear?} [Sūrat al-Zukhruf: 18]. Thus it has become clear to people of understanding, and evident to those of intellect, that the distinction of the people of clarification over the mute and bound of tongue lies in the ability of the former to clarify what he intends to clarify from himself through his expression, and the inability of the latter's tongue to express what he attempts to clarify through his tongue.

Since that is so—and the quality by which the superior was distinguished from the inferior in this regard, thereby becoming superior while the other became inferior, is what we have described of the virtue of clarification of the articulate person compared to what the tongue-tied falls short of, and since this varies in degrees, and differs in aims and ends—there is no doubt that the highest of the stations of clarification in degree, and the most exalted of its ranks in status, is that which is most eloquent in fulfilling the need of the speaker expressing himself, clearest in conveying the intended meaning of its speaker, and closest to the understanding of its listener. If it exceeds that measure, rising above the capacity of created beings, so that all servants are unable to produce its like, it becomes a proof and a sign for the messengers of the One, the All-Subduing—just as the bringing of the dead to life and the healing of the leper and the blind were a proof and a sign for them, by rising above the measures of the highest ranks of physicians' medicine (2) and the loftiest levels of healers' treatments, to that which all the worlds are unable to perform; and just as traversing a two-month distance in a single night was a proof and a sign for them, by rising above human capacity, such that the like of it was impossible for all servants, even if they were capable of traversing a small distance and able to accomplish a slight portion of it.

Since what we have described of that is as we have described, it is clear that there is no clarification more clarifying, no wisdom more profound, no speech higher, and no discourse more noble than the clarification and speech by which