and an exception to an affirmative statement constitutes a negation. Usage can give an expression a meaning other than that conveyed by its original designation. This occurs sometimes in individual nouns, sometimes in the construction of speech, and sometimes in entire expressions transferred to new meanings, such as widely circulated proverbs. Thus, customary usage changes an individual noun from its original sense, whether by broadening, narrowing, or shifting its meaning, as with dābba (“beast”), ghā’it (“excrement”), and ra’s (“head”).

Usage likewise changes a construction from what analogous constructions would ordinarily imply, as with the addition of an extra negative particle in negative clauses and the addition of negation with kāda (“almost”). An entire sentence may also be transferred from its original meaning to another, as with expressions used proverbially, such as:

“Your own hands tied it, and your own mouth inflated it,”

and:

“Perhaps al-Ghuwayr will bring calamities.”

Second consideration

If no religion is better than this one, any other religion must either be its equal or be inferior to it. It cannot be its equal, because if one religion resembles another and equals it in every respect, it is that very same religion. Even if there are several others, the kind remains one. Two different religions therefore cannot be identical and equal, for their difference precludes their being identical: difference is the opposite of sameness. How, then, could they be both different and identical?

Their difference, moreover, is one of opposition, not merely diversity. In one religion, certain things are believed to be true and obligatory, while the other declares them false and forbidden. It is therefore impossible for these two beliefs to be equal.