as a witness over you, just as We sent to Pharaoh a messenger.”

“But Pharaoh disobeyed the messenger.”

He says elsewhere:

“Do not treat the Messenger’s call among you like your calls to one another.”

The expression “the messenger” is identical in both passages and includes the definite article. In each passage, however, it refers to the messenger known to those being addressed in that context. Thus, when He says here:

“Just as We sent to Pharaoh a messenger.”

“But Pharaoh disobeyed the messenger.”

the definite article identifies the messenger sent to Pharaoh: Moses, son of ʿImrān, peace be upon him.

When He says to the community of Muhammad:

“Do not treat the Messenger’s call among you like your calls to one another,”

the definite article identifies the Messenger known to those addressed by the Quran, who are commanded to obey his commands and refrain from what he forbids: the community of Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.

It is well known, by common agreement, that an expression of this kind cannot be said to be figurative in either instance. Nor can it be described as purely lexically equivocal, like al-mushtarī, which denotes both a buyer and the planet Jupiter, or Suhayl, which denotes both a star and a man.

Nor can it be described as a univocal term indicating only the shared meaning in both passages. For it is known that in one passage it refers to Muhammad and in the other to Moses, although the expression “the messenger” is identical. Rather, this expression was uttered within a context whose import is conveyed by the definite article. The same applies to all definite nouns, for nouns are of two kinds: definite and indefinite.