a man challenged a people in an era when they were the leaders in the craft of oratory and eloquence, the composition of poetry and articulateness, and rhymed prose and divination—against every orator, eloquent speaker, poet, articulate person among them, and every practitioner of rhymed prose and divination—and he declared their intellects foolish, demonstrated the shortcomings of their minds, disavowed their religion, and called them all to follow him, accept from him, believe him, and affirm that he is a messenger sent to them from their Lord. He informed them that the proof of the truthfulness of his claim, and his argument for the reality of his prophethood, was what he brought them of clarification, wisdom, and the Criterion, in a language like their languages, and speech whose meanings concurred with the meanings of their speech. Then he informed them all that they were incapable of producing the like of even a part of it, and deficient in the power to do so. So all of them confessed their incapacity, submitted to him in belief, and bore witness against themselves of deficiency—except those among them who feigned ignorance and turned a blind eye, acted arrogantly and pretended not to see, attempting to burden themselves with what they already knew they were incapable of, and seeking what they were certain they had no power over. Thus, such a person exposed the weakness of his mind that had been concealed, and the flaw of his tongue that had been guarded, bringing forth that which even a weak foolish person and an ignorant fool would not fail to produce, saying: "By the female grinders grinding, the kneaders kneading, the bakers baking, the soppers sopping, and the swallowers swallowing!" (3) and similar foolishness resembling his false claim.

Since the disparity among the ranks of clarification, and the distinction among the stations of degrees of speech, are according to what we described before—and God, exalted be His mention and sanctified be His names, is the Wisest of the wise and the most Forbearing of the forbearing—