and peace be upon them all. For it is incumbent that a speaker’s words be interpreted by means of one another: his statements here must be read alongside his statements there, and one must know what he habitually intends by a particular term when he utters it, as well as the senses that are known to have been his intent in other contexts. Once his customary usage—both in wording and in meaning—is ascertained, it becomes an aid to grasping his purpose.

But if his word is taken in a sense that he is not known to employ, while the meaning he normally assigns to that term is set aside, and his discourse is forced into a construction that runs counter to the meaning known to have been his intent—thereby making his speech appear contradictory and refusing to construe it in harmony with the rest of what he says—then this is a distortion of his words, an alteration of his aims, and a lie against him.

This is the very root of the error committed by those who misinterpret the prophets’ words contrary to their intent. Once this is understood, we say:

The reply to what they have cited here may be given from several angles. One of them is that Allah never ascribes to the Messiah an unrestricted act of creation, nor any general act of creation, as He ascribes to Himself—blessed and exalted. Indeed, the very first revelation that Allah sent down to His Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, was:

“Recite in the name of your Lord who created, created man from a clinging clot. Recite, for your Lord is the Most Generous, who taught by the pen, taught man what he did not know.” (Al-‘Alaq 1–5)