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Third category: a concise statement whose clarification has been deferred to another statement. Such a text, too, may only be interpreted in the light of the statement that explains it(1); the explanation may accompany it, or it may be found elsewhere.

The point is that language open to interpretation is language that can bear several meanings and is not accompanied by anything that discloses the speaker’s intent. Such wording leaves wide scope for interpretation. In the speech of Allah and His Messenger there is nothing of this kind among the compound sentences, even though it does occur in the disjointed letters with which some surahs open(2). Rather, whoever has been granted insight by Allah into the method of the Qur’an and the Sunnah will find that they contain within themselves the removal of everything that the wording might suggest contrary to its apparent sense. This is a very subtle matter in understanding the Qur’an, and we shall point to some examples of it.

One example is His saying, “And Allah spoke to Moses—speaking to him directly” (An-Nisaʾ 4:163). The Exalted dismissed any suspicion of metaphor in His speaking(3) to His interlocutor by means of the emphatic verbal noun, so that no one whose heart and tongue are truly Arabic can doubt that the verse intends to affirm that very reality—just as the Arabs say, “He died a death,” or, “He descended a descent.” Similar emphatic devices include the use of nafs (self), ʿayn (itself), kull and ajmaʿ (all, entirely), and the reinforcement by the word haqqan (truly) and its counterparts.

Another instance is His saying, “Allah has indeed heard the statement of her who disputes with you concerning her husband and complains to Allah; and Allah hears your mutual discussion. Surely Allah is All-Hearing, All-Seeing” (Al-Mujadila 58:1).