An example of a qualifying adjective is the Almighty’s words: “...then (marry) from those whom your right hands possess—your believing maidservants...” (al-Nisāʾ 4:25).

An example of an appositive is the Almighty’s words: “Pilgrimage to the House is a duty owed to Allah by all people—whoever is able to find a way to it” (Āl ʿImrān 3:97).

An example of a circumstantial qualifier is the Almighty’s words: “Whoever kills a believer deliberately—his recompense is Hell, wherein he will abide forever” (al-Nisāʾ 4:93).

The detached delimiter
A detached delimiter is one that stands independently, and it is of three kinds: sensory perception, reason, and revelation.

Example of specification by sensory perception: the Almighty’s words about the wind sent against ʿĀd, “It destroys everything by command of its Lord” (al-Aḥqāf 46:25), for observation shows that it did not destroy the heavens and the earth.

Example of specification by reason: the Almighty’s words, “Indeed, He has power over all things” (al-Aḥqāf 46:33), for reason dictates that His very essence is uncreated.

Some scholars hold that what is excluded by sense perception or by reason is not a case of a general statement being particularised, but rather a general wording that was intended from the outset to convey a specific meaning, since the excluded matter was never meant by the speaker or understood by the audience. This is the reality of a general expression intended for a particular sense.

Specification by revelation, on the other hand, occurs when the Quran and the Sunnah each delimit the other, and likewise through scholarly consensus and sound analogy.

An example of the Quran being delimited by the Quran is the Almighty’s words, “Divorced women shall wait concerning themselves for three menstrual periods” (al-Baqarah 2:228), which are restricted by His words, “O you who believe! When you marry believing women...”