in the correspondence of ordinary people and the elite, and of those who write to them. If writing, which represents spoken words, conveys the intended meaning with immediate certainty in most of what is written, then spoken words, which are closer to the intended meaning, are all the more capable of conveying it with immediate certainty.

Moreover, if such clarity and expression are found in the speech of ordinary people who are not counted among the learned, then scholars are even better placed to make their meaning clear and to have it understood from their speech. If this is true of scholars who are not prophets, then it applies all the more to the prophets: when they speak to people and address them, they make their meaning clear, and people understand what they explain through their words. Then the Lord of all worlds is all the more entitled to have His speech be the finest and the clearest of all speech. Allah Most High says:

“We have never sent a messenger except in the language of his people, so that he might make things clear to them.” [Ibrāhīm 4]

Thus, He sent the messengers in the language of their people, whom they addressed first, so that each messenger might explain what he intended and the message Allah had revealed to him. How, then, can it be said that they did not make their intended meaning clear, that their words did not convey what they meant, and that they did not explain what had been revealed to them conclusively, because they explained it in words, while this man maintains that none of the proofs