with sincere devotion to Him is a Muslim at all times. Yet his worship of Him must conform to what He has prescribed.

Had he said, “I do not worship in your manner, nor do you worship in mine,” one might suppose that this includes disavowal of every act of worship whose outward form differs from his own. Rather, the disavowal concerns the object of worship and the worship of it.

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Having clarified this, we say:

The Quran is a revelation from One who is All-Wise, Praiseworthy. It is a Book whose verses have been perfected and then explained in detail. If a human being had some knowledge or wisdom to convey, or a sermon, poem, or written work, and carefully refined its wording, introducing variations like these, it would be understood that he intended some wise purpose thereby, and that he had not varied the wording pointlessly while keeping the meaning the same. How much more, then, must this apply to the speech of the Lord of all worlds, the wisest of judges—especially when He has said concerning it:

“Say, ‘If mankind and the jinn gathered together to produce the like of this Quran, they could not produce its like, even if they helped one another.’”

We therefore say:

In the language, the imperfect verb denotes ongoing time other than the past, thus encompassing both the present and the future. As Sībawayh said: “And they formed it to express what has elapsed of