and all other animals, as He says elsewhere:

“Glorify the name of your Lord, the Most High,”
“Who created and proportioned,”
“And Who determined and guided.”

And as Moses said:

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

For this particular teaching necessarily entails general guidance, but the converse does not hold. It bears more directly on establishing prophethood, since prophethood is a kind of teaching. Making a human being a prophet is no greater than making a clinging clot into a living, knowing, rational human being, endowed with hearing, sight, and speech, who has acquired various kinds of knowledge. Likewise, originating creation is no easier for Him than repeating it. How could the One capable of the original creation be incapable of resurrection? And how could the One capable of this teaching be incapable of that teaching, when He knows all things and no one encompasses any of His knowledge except what He wills?

He, glorified is He, first says:

“Who taught by the pen.”

He thus speaks of both teaching and those taught in unrestricted terms, without singling out any particular class of learners. This encompasses the teaching of angels and others among humans and jinn, just as creation encompasses them all. He mentions teaching by the pen because it entails teaching writing. Writing corresponds to spoken expression, which is communication and speech. Spoken expression, in turn, signifies the intelligible meanings within the heart; thus, all knowledge within hearts is included.

Everything has a reality of its own, existing outside the mind; then