expressions belong to a specialized usage, and what they mean by them differs from their original linguistic meaning, whether that intended meaning is true or false.
This being so, the matter requires clarification.
If these opponents are not addressed in their own language and terminology, they may say, “We do not understand what has been said to us,” or, “The person addressing and refuting us has not understood our position.” They mislead people by claiming that what they mean by their words is a truth known through reason or direct experience. They also say, “It accords with revealed law,” when they do not openly display their opposition to revealed law, as do the heretics among the Qarmatians, the philosophers, and those who emulate them.
Yet if they are addressed in their own language and terminology—even though it is not the familiar language in which the Quran was revealed—this may lead to wording that outwardly conflicts with the Quran.
These people have expressed the meanings affirmed by the Quran in other terms not found in the Quran; some of these terms may occur in the Quran with a different meaning. Such expressions are therefore not among those affirmed by the Quran. Indeed, their familiar meaning in the Arabic language in which the Quran was revealed may be invalid and false—something denied by both revealed law and reason. They, however, have assigned these expressions meanings other than those they bear in Arabic. Thus, when they negate them without qualification, that negation conveys nothing false in Arabic, but does convey something false in their specialized terminology.
If someone addresses them in Arabic, they say, “He has not understood what we mean.” If someone addresses them in their own terminology, they begin publicizing that he has said something contrary to the Quran. This arises because those expressions are unspecified and ambiguous.
[The meaning of the term “oneness” in the Book and Sunnah differs from what the innovators intend]
This applies to the expressions mentioned earlier, such as “beginninglessness,” “coming into existence,” “substance,” “body,” “accident,” “composite,” “compound,” “occupying space,” “part,” “oneness,”