back, like someone standing on the edge of a mountain. The letters of speech are thus called hurūf because they constitute its extremity, boundary, and endpoint: speech originates within the speaker and reaches its endpoint at the boundary and edge formed by his lips and tongue. Hence the Most High says:

“Have We not made for him two eyes,
and a tongue and two lips?”

The word harf can therefore carry any of these three meanings. Then, when speech is written in a codex, this too is called hurūf. Here, harf may refer to the particular shape—each nation has its own distinctive forms, constituting the script in which it writes its speech—or it may refer to the material, or to both together. These written letters correspond to the spoken letters, make them clear, and signify them; they are therefore given the same names, since a person writes spoken words with his pen. Hence the first revelation Allah sent down to His Prophet was:

“Read in the name of your Lord who created,”

through His words:

“what he did not know.”

Thus, in the very first revelation, He, glorified be He, made clear that He is the Creator and Guide, who created and proportioned, and who determined and guided. As Moses said:

“Our Lord is He who gave everything its form, then guided it.”

Creation encompasses all created things other than Him. He then singled out man, saying:

“He created man from a clinging clot.”

Then He mentioned that He taught, for guidance and instruction bring created beings to their perfection. Knowledge has “three levels”: knowledge in the heart, expression by the tongue, and writing