The ninth point: He should be told that a speaker may not intend a figurative meaning rather than an expression’s literal meaning and referent unless there is an indication clarifying what is intended. Using figurative language without such an indication is, by universal agreement, inadmissible. It would be like using a word to mean something it does not designate in the language—for example, intending “earth” by “sky,” or “sea” by “sun,” and so forth.

It is well known that neither Allah nor His Messenger ever supplied any indication, whether accompanying this address or separate from it, that would turn people away from believing what this surah signifies. Nor did any of this community’s early generations or imams say that the name al-Samad, as applied to Allah, is not to be understood in its apparent sense, or that you should not believe what the name al-Samad and its apparent sense convey. Rather, the esteem in which the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, held this surah, his statement that it is equivalent to one-third of the Quran, and the like confirm its content and establish its meaning and import.

The tenth point: The rational proofs he has cited, which are taken as an indication for departing from the apparent meaning of the name al-Samad, are either true or false.