composed of two nouns, a noun and a verb, or a noun and a particle.

Reports from the Companions establish that His words, “Except those who repent,” in the verse concerning accusations of unchastity apply to both clauses. The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“No man should lead another in prayer within the latter’s domain of authority, nor sit in his place of honor, except with his permission.”

The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, also said:

“An Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab, nor a non-Arab over an Arab, nor a black person over a white person, nor a white person over a black person, except through piety.”

Such instances are numerous in the Quran and Sunnah. Indeed, anyone who examines the exceptions in the Quran and Sunnah that follow several clauses will find that most apply to all of them. This concerns exceptions. As for conditional and adjectival qualifications, their instances are so numerous that only Allah could count them.

Since the predominant usage in the Quran, the Sunnah, and Arab speech is for an exception to apply to all the clauses, the presumption is that an individual instance follows the predominant pattern. For either the exception has been conventionally assigned both senses literally—in which case the presumption is against multiple literal meanings—or it has been assigned only the less common sense, which would require its remaining uses to be figurative. Figurative usage runs contrary to the default presumption, so its frequent occurrence likewise runs contrary to that presumption.

Thus, if we regard the exception as literal in its predominant usage and figurative in its less common usage, we will have upheld both the presumption against multiple literal meanings and the presumption against figurative usage where frequencies of usage differ. This is preferable to abandoning the presumption altogether.