the usage of the Lawgiver. Rather, the Lawgiver distinguished between seeking clean earth and the wiping that follows it.

As for “faith,” He commanded it with the qualification that it be faith in Allah, His angels, His Books, and His messengers. Likewise, “Islam” is qualified as submission to Allah, Lord of all worlds, and “disbelief” is similarly qualified. As for “hypocrisy,” it has been said that the Arabs had not previously used this word, although it is derived from their speech. The verb nafaqa resembles kharaja (to leave); hence nafaqat al-dābbah, meaning that an animal has died. Related expressions include the jerboa’s nāfiqā’ (escape burrow) and nafaq (a tunnel in the earth). Allah Most High says:

“If you can seek a tunnel into the earth.”

Thus, a hypocrite is someone who has inwardly left faith after outwardly entering it. Hypocrisy is qualified here as hypocrisy with respect to faith. Some people describe someone who ceases to obey a king as a hypocrite toward him; the hypocrisy mentioned in the Quran, however, is hypocrisy toward the Messenger.

Allah and His Messenger address people using these terms just as people address one another using other terms: their usage is qualified and specific, not unrestricted and open to various meanings. The Messenger explained those particular characteristics, and the terms themselves indicated them. It should therefore not be said that these terms have been transferred to new meanings, nor that something has been added to the ruling but not to the meaning of the term. Rather, each term was used in a way specific to the Lawgiver’s intent, not without qualification.

He said:

“Establish prayer,”

only after acquainting them with the prayer they were commanded to perform. The definite article therefore referred to the prayer they already knew. The word “prayer” was not introduced while they were unaware of its meaning.

For this reason, the views of all those who say that the word “prayer” applies generally in its linguistic sense, or that it is ambiguous because it could bear either its linguistic or its religious meaning, or who make similar claims, are weak. This word occurs only in a statement or a command. An example of a statement is His saying:

“Have you seen the one who forbids a servant when he prays?”

The surah beginning “Read” was among the earliest revelations of the Quran. “And there was