is a revelation of the Lord of the worlds. The Trustworthy Spirit has brought it down upon your heart that you may be of the warners, in a clear Arabic tongue.} [Sūrat Al-Shuʿarāʾ: 192–195].

Since the correctness of what we have said is clear—through the testimonies we have adduced and the proofs we have indicated—it is obligatory that the meanings of the Book of Allah revealed to our Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings of God be upon him, be in agreement with the meanings of the speech of the Arabs, and its apparent sense conformable to the apparent sense of their speech, even if the Book of Allah surpasses it in the virtue by which it excels all other speech and expression, as we have previously described.

Since that is so, then it is clear—since there exists in the speech of the Arabs conciseness and brevity, relying on concealment rather than explicit expression, and on brevity rather than prolixity in certain circumstances, as well as the use of elaboration and expansion, repetition and reiteration, expressing meanings through explicit names rather than allusion, and secrecy at times, and speaking of the specific when the apparent general is intended, and of the general when the apparent specific is intended, and of allusion when the explicit is intended, and of the attribute when the described is intended, and of the described when the attribute is intended, and advancing what is deferred in meaning, and deferring what is advanced in meaning, and sufficing with a part for the whole, and with what is apparent for what is omitted, and making explicit what is meant to be omitted (1)—that whatever is in the Book of Allah revealed to His Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings of God be upon him, of that, has in all of it a counterpart, an instance, and a parallel.

And we shall explain all of that in its proper places, if Allah wills that and extends help and strength therefrom.