to hints and allusions. Rather, it must be stated exhaustively and expressly brought to attention, with its meanings fully explained, clarified, made intelligible, and made known. For even the most accomplished thinkers, who spend their days, nights, and the hours of their lives training their minds, sharpening their understanding, and preparing their souls to grasp obscure meanings swiftly, need assistance to understand these matters.

By my life, if Allah charged one of His messengers with conveying the realities of these matters to the general public—whose dispositions are coarse and whose imaginations are attached to purely sensory things—and then required him to secure their faith and acceptance without neglecting this task, and further required him to undertake the training of everyone’s souls until they were ready to grasp these matters, He would have imposed an excessive burden upon him and required him to do what lies beyond human capacity. Unless, indeed, a special divine influence, a power from above, and heavenly inspiration were to reach them, in which case