Discourse on the Explanation of the Words in Which the Vocabulary of the Arabs Agreed with the Vocabulary of Others Among Some Types of Nations

Abū Jaʿfar said: If a questioner asks us, saying: "You mentioned that it is not permissible for Allah, exalted be His mention, to address any of His creation except in what he understands, nor to send him a message except in the tongue that he comprehends...

1- What then do you say regarding what Muḥammad ibn Ḥumayd al-Rāzī narrated to you, saying: Ḥakkām ibn Salm narrated to us, saying: ʿAnbasa narrated to us, from Abū Isḥāq, from Abū al-Aḥwaṣ, from Abū Mūsā: {He will give you a double portion of His mercy} [Sūrat Al-Ḥadīd: 28], he said: 'Double portion' means two folds of reward, in the Ethiopian language (1).

2- And regarding what Ibn Ḥumayd narrated to you, saying: Ḥakkām narrated to us, from ʿAnbasa, from Abū Isḥāq, from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, from Ibn ʿAbbās: {Indeed, the rising of the night} [Sūrat Al-Muzzammil: 6], he said: In the Ethiopian language, when a man stands up in the night, they say: 'nasha' (2).

3- And regarding what Ibn Ḥumayd narrated to you, saying: Ḥakkām narrated to us, saying: ʿAnbasa narrated to us, from Abū Isḥāq, from Abū Maysara: {O mountains, repeat [His praises] with him}, he said: Glorify, in the Ethiopian language (3)?"

Abū Jaʿfar said: Whenever we say in this book "narrated to you", they have narrated it to us.