a definitive rational proof? We have discussed this at length elsewhere and explained that this does not occur. Rather, Allah must make His intended meaning clear, so that His speech provides guidance and clarification and establishes the proof. Wherever an apparent meaning is not intended, He clarifies this through another verse, as with specific and general expressions. But for His speech to indicate something other than the truth while He has not clarified the truth He intended—this does not occur. Even someone other than Allah would be at fault and blameworthy if he spoke without making his intended meaning clear. The Lord of all worlds is therefore all the more deserving of being declared free from every fault and ground for blame, and from speaking words that do not clarify His intent, but instead appear to mean something He did not intend, while giving no indication whatsoever of what He did intend—as these heretical deniers of the divine attributes allege.
The fourteenth point: His statement, “Abandoning the apparent meaning of one to preserve that of the other is no more justified than the reverse.” The response is: One explains the other and clarifies its intended meaning; it contradicts it only in the eyes of someone who does not understand. An example is His saying, Exalted is He: “Fear Allah with due