and the root s-w-r indicates this. Every existing thing has a form in external reality. Events comprise many things that have an existing form. Likewise, the events and other matters about which questions are asked have a form in external reality. This existing form is then impressed upon the mind and may be called a mental form. Thus, the expressions “I explained to him the form of the event” and “He informed me of the form of the question” may refer either to the external form or to the mental form.

As for “attribute” (sifa), it is originally a verbal noun of the verb “to describe”: “I described the thing; I describe it,” with wasf and sifa as its verbal nouns. Then, following their customary usage, they use the verbal noun to name its object, calling the meanings by which something is described its “attributes.” One of the two expressions may then predominate in certain terminological conventions. Thus, one group has adopted the convention of using wasf for the verbal description and sifa for the meaning, while another group uses both terms for the verbal description. The correct view is that each term can signify this.

Someone describing a thing cannot describe it until he knows it, so that its likeness is impressed upon his mind. It is on this basis that one puts