then, if a contextual indication accompanies it, the intended meaning becomes clear, as in the Prophet’s words, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, concerning Abū Talhah’s horse: “We indeed found it to be a sea”; his words: “Khālid is a sword from among Allah’s swords, which Allah has drawn against the polytheists”; his words to ʿUthmān: “Allah will clothe you in a shirt”; and Ibn ʿAbbās’s words: “The Black Stone is Allah’s right hand on earth. Whoever touches it and shakes hands with it is as though he has pledged allegiance to his Lord”—or words to that effect—and similar statements.

Such wording involves figurative usage, even though the speaker’s intent is evident from the words themselves. It is understood according to this apparent meaning in that speaker’s usage, not according to the apparent meaning of its original lexical sense. Everyone who hears such a statement understands what it means, and that meaning immediately comes to mind, since the original meaning cannot possibly be intended. This makes the statement unambiguous, rather than open to competing interpretations. Understanding the wording in this sense does not in any way constitute the kind of interpretation that diverts an expression from its more likely meaning to a less likely one. This is one source of error among those who go astray in this matter: they imagine that the meaning understood from the expression differs from its apparent meaning and that the expression has therefore been interpreted away from that meaning.

“The second category” consists of expressions whose meanings involve a relation. Their meaning may be purely relational, as with being higher or lower, above or below, and the like. Alternatively, they may convey a positively existing quality that involves a relation, such as knowledge, love, power, incapacity,