This is true of anyone who conveys something to another: sometimes he does so through words, and sometimes through actions. Thus, someone who turns a house into a mosque, opens its door to all who enter, and permits prayer there has made it known that it is an endowment, even without stating this explicitly. Likewise, someone seen seeking closeness to another through various pleasing acts makes it known to that person and to others that he loves him, even without saying so. The converse is also true.
Likewise, the Lord’s testimony—exalted is His Majesty—His clarification and His making things known take place sometimes through His words and sometimes through His acts.
His words are what He sent His messengers with and revealed in His scriptures. It is known with self-evident certainty that all the messengers reported from Allah that He testified concerning Himself that there is no god but Him, declared this, and commanded His servants to bear witness to it.
His testimony, “There is no god but Him,” is known through everyone who conveyed His words on His behalf.
As for His clarification and His making things known through His acts, this consists in what He, Most High, has told us about the proofs of His oneness, whose significance is understood through reason and the innate disposition.
The term “testimony” is also used for this, as are the terms “indication,” “guidance,” and “clarification.” A proof makes clear and manifests what it points to, just as a witness or someone conveying information does. Indeed, clarification through actions may be clearer and more eloquent. The testimony of a thing’s state may even be called its speech, utterance, or words, since it takes their place and conveys the same meaning. As one poet said:
The eyes said, “We hear and obey,”
And shed pearls not yet pierced.
Another said:
My camel complained to me of the long night’s journey;
“Patience, my dear camel, for we are both afflicted.”
Another said:
The trough filled up and said, “Enough!
Gently, slowly—you have filled my belly.”