with the meaning of a complete sentence. Many grammarians—or most of them—do not know this. Rather, they suppose that their convention of dividing what they call a kalimah into nouns, verbs, and particles reflects the language of the Arabs. The accomplished among them says:

“And by ‘word,’ complete speech may be meant.”

They say that the Arabs may use kalimah for a complete sentence and may also use it for a single word. This is mistaken: in Arab speech, kalimah is never used except for a complete sentence.

A similar case is the speculative theologians’ convention that qadīm denotes that whose existence has no beginning, or that which was not preceded by nonexistence. Some of them then say that qadīm may also denote something that precedes something else, whether or not it is beginningless, as the Most High says:

“Until it becomes like an old date stalk.”

And He says:

“And since they have not been guided by it, they will say, ‘This is an old fabrication.’”

And the Most High says:

“They said, ‘By Allah, you are indeed in your old error.’”

And He says:

“Have you considered what you have been worshipping—you and your forefathers of old?”

Restricting qadīm to the first meaning is a terminological convention. There is no doubt that what has no beginning is more deserving of this designation in the Lord’s usage. Thus, in the language of the Arabs, muhdath (“new”) stands in contrast to qadīm (“old”). The Most High says:

“No new reminder comes to them from their Lord.”

This implies that what was revealed before it is not new, but earlier. This accords with the Arabic language in which the Quran was revealed.