which is with "those who evoked anger," if it were in the sense of "other than" ("siwā"), it would be incorrect to coordinate upon it using "nor" ("lā"), since "nor" ("lā") is only coordinated upon a negation preceding it. Just as the statement of a speaker: "I have other than your brother nor your father" is incorrect, because "other than" ("siwā") is not among the particles of negation and denial. And he says: Since that was incorrect in the speech of the Arabs, and the Qur'ān is in the most eloquent of the languages of the Arabs, it was known that what the speaker claimed—that "not" ("ghayr") with "those who evoked anger" means: other than those who evoked anger—is an error, since he repeated speech upon it using "nor" ("lā"). And he maintained that "not" ("ghayr") there is only in the sense of negation. For it is authentic in the speech of the Arabs, and widespread and apparent in their speech, to direct "not" ("ghayr") to the meaning of negation, and it is used among them to say: "Your brother is not good-doing nor gracious," meaning thereby: Your brother is neither good-doing nor gracious. And he denounces that "nor" ("lā") should come in the sense of omission at the beginning when no negation precedes it. And he says: Were it permissible for it to come in the sense of omission at the beginning, without a prior indication indicating that from a preceding negation, the statement of a speaker saying: "I wanted not to honor your brother" would be correct, in the sense of: "I wanted to honor your brother." And he used to interpret "nor" ("lā") in the verse of al-'Ajjāj, which we mentioned that the Basran cited as evidence, by saying that it is a genuine negation, and that the meaning of the verse is: He journeyed into a pit that brings him no good back, nor does any effect of work appear for him in it, while he does not realize that nor know it, from their saying: "The grinder ground, but brought back nothing," meaning no effect of work appeared for it. And he says regarding all the other verses—meaning such as the verse of Abū al-Najm:

"So I do not blame the fair ones for not ridiculing"

it was only permissible for "nor" ("lā") to be in the sense of omission because negation had preceded it at the beginning of the speech, so the latter speech was connected to the former, just as the poet said: