four categories.

Second, his explanation of the clear as the unequivocal and the apparent, and of the ambiguous as the indeterminate and the interpreted, is a known view held by a group of scholars. Al-Qādī Abū Ya‘lā reported it from Imam Ahmad—may Allah Most High have mercy on him—who said, “The clear is that which stands on its own and requires no clarification; the ambiguous is that which requires clarification.” Thus, this explanation is not unique to him. Unlike those scholars, however, he contradicts himself.

Third, he made the subject of this division a word assigned to a meaning: it either admits another meaning or does not. It is known that a word may admit multiple meanings by virtue of its designation—for example, a shared designation for particular referents, such as Suhayl and al-Thurayyā when they refer to the two celestial bodies and to the married couple mentioned in the poet’s words: