the Messenger, they have obeyed Allah, as He, Most High, says:

“Whoever obeys the Messenger has obeyed Allah.”

If someone whom Muhammad’s message has reached obeys Allah, he must necessarily obey the Messenger, for there is no obedience to Allah except through obedience to him.

The third is conjoining a part of something with the whole, as in His sayings:

“Maintain the prayers and the middle prayer.”

“And when We took from the prophets their covenant, and from you, and from Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus son of Mary.”

“Whoever is an enemy to Allah, His angels, His messengers, Gabriel and Michael.”

“And He caused you to inherit their land, their homes, their wealth, and land you had not trodden.”

The fourth is conjoining references to the same thing because the two descriptions differ, as in His saying:

“Glorify the name of your Lord, the Most High, who created and proportioned, and who decreed and guided, and who brought forth the pasture.”

And His saying:

“Those who believe in the unseen, establish prayer, and spend from what We have provided for them, and those who believe in what has been revealed to you and what was revealed before you, and are certain of the Hereafter.”

Poetry contains examples said to involve conjunction merely because the wording differs, such as:

“He found her words to be lies and falsehood.”

Some people claim that something similar occurs in the Book of Allah, citing His words, “a law and a way.” This is mistaken: such usage occurs neither in the Quran nor in eloquent speech. At most, the examples people cite involve words with different meanings. Some, for instance, have claimed that the following is an example of this:

“How dear are Hind and the land where Hind dwells—
And Hind, from whom separation and distance keep me apart.”

They claimed that the two words have the same meaning, citing this as evidence for their claim that the law