One should therefore, in this matter (1), defer to the masters of language, for it is not at all a subject for rational speculation. The strongest arguments on which our scholars rely in this purely verbal dispute are four:
First: Whenever the speakers of the language hear speech from a person (2), they at once call him a “speaker,” even though they have no knowledge that he actually produced that speech—except, perhaps, by inferential evidence (3)(4). If the term “speaker” denoted only the producer of speech, they would not apply it to anyone until they were certain that he had indeed produced it (5).
Second: Inductive examination (6) shows (7) that the one described as “black” is the person in whom blackness inheres, and likewise the “white,” the “knower,” and the “able.” Consequently, in the language a “speaker” is the one in whom speech inheres (8).
Third: Allah created speech in the heaven and the earth when He said, “Come, both of you, willingly or unwillingly.” They said, “We come willingly” (9); yet He attributed that utterance to the two of them,
(1) In the original edition (denoted S): fi (“in”). The reading deemed contextually appropriate is confirmed by edition T, and the phrase appears in Nihayat al-‘Uqul as “wa-yanbaghī an yurājaʿa fīhā al-adabāʾ” (“and it should be reviewed there by literary scholars”).
(2) In Nihayat al-‘Uqul: al-insān (“the human”).
(3) The text enclosed in square brackets is an addition from Nihayat al-‘Uqul that clarifies the phrase.
(4) In the original edition: aw bi-l-adilla (“or with evidences”); in edition S: aw bi-dalāla (“or with indication”); omitted in edition T; retained in Nihayat al-‘Uqul.
It appears to me—God knows best—that the printer deliberately omitted this word out of misunderstanding. Had he consulted the (manuscript of the) Nihayat al-‘Uqul, it would have been clear; but he did not take the trouble to verify it and thus deleted the word, which constitutes a disservice and an unauthorized alteration of the work.
(5) The text enclosed in square brackets is an addition from Nihayat al-‘Uqul.
(6) In editions S and T: al-istiqrār (“the establishment”).
(7) In the original edition: ‘alayhi (“on it”). Confirmed in S, T, and Nihayat al-‘Uqul.
(8) Huwa (“it”) is omitted in Nihayat al-‘Uqul.
(9) Sūra Fussilat, verse 11.