and it towers high, never to be outdone, bearing no resemblance whatsoever to human speech.” (1)

Nor did the Prophet’s avowed enemies—those who confronted him with war and hostility—ever allege that the outward sense of his words amounted to the rankest falsehood and the clearest impossibility, namely, describing the Creator, exalted be He, in the ugliest shapes and forms. (2) Had that truly been the Quran’s apparent meaning, it would have offered them the easiest route to impugn it. They would have retorted, “How can you summon us to worship a Lord whose face carries many eyes, who has but a single side, one shin, and numerous hands?” How could they have remained silent about such a claim when they raised objections over matters far less significant than this? They even objected concerning the Messiah when he said: (3) “Indeed, you and whatever you worship apart from Allah are fuel for Hell; you will surely enter it.” (Al-Anbiyaʾ 97) They clung to a surface reading that did not, in fact, support their inference—maintaining that the Messiah himself fell under what is worshipped besides Allah—either on the basis of the generality (4) of the word “whatever” (mā) or the generality of the meaning; (5) and on that supposed outward sense they built their objection.