The Tenth Premise
A speaker should not be blamed for what springs to other people’s minds from what he says. For it is only by an act of will that he takes on himself meanings other than what he intends from his speech. If he has no such intention, he should not be blamed. But he is definitely responsible for what is intended and meant.
It is established by the science of figurative speech (fenn‑i beyan; Ar. ‘ilm al‑bayān) that true and false follow on from the intention and aim of the speaker. Hence, blame and criticism levelled at what is intended and aimed at in speech looks to the speaker. However, any faults ascribed to the allusions and hints termed associative meanings (müstetbeât), and to depictions of the meanings and the manner of expression, and the literary style and means called the primary meanings (maânî‑i ûlâ), and the censure directed at them, look to customary usage and colloquial speech not to the speaker. For common usages and generally understood meanings are respected so as to facilitate understanding.
Moreover, if the speech is a story, any faults or errors look to what is being related;
the speaker certainly should not be blamed for any literary devices or allusive meanings. For his intention is not to grasp them and seize their fruits, but to climb up to the branches of the higher aims.
If you wish, take note of the following metonymical things. For example, “So‑and-so’s sword-belt is long” and “he has lots of ashes.” If someone says this, meaning that the man is tall and generous, it is true even if he has no sword or ashes.
If you wish take note now of allegory and parables: you will see that by virtue of the value and power gained from fame, they become worthy of being ambassadors between people’s minds and in the exchange of ideas. In fact, even such veracious authors and exacting sages as the author of the Mathnawī and Sa‘di Shirazi were never contested because they used parables.
If the meaning of this is now clear to you and has been lit up, light your candle from it and betake yourself to the nooks of stories and tales. For what is valid in the part may sometimes be valid in the whole.
Reminder A rule concerning the obscurities and allegorical verses of the Qur’an will be discussed in the Third Article, but because of the context we are going to mention it very briefly here. It is like this:
the main purpose of the Wise Book is the guidance of the mass of people, who form the majority. For the elite can profit from the common people’s way, but the commmon people cannot properly understand a discussion addressed to the elite. The greater part of the mass of people are uneducated (avam), and the uneducated cannot disengage themselves from their imaginings and their habitual modes of thought and see the naked, unadorned truth or purely abstract ideas. To allow them to see them, abstract ideas have to be presented in a dress familiar to them, in order to accustom their minds to them. They then may see and understand the abstract ideas by beholding them beyond those imaginary forms. In which case, pure truth will be clothed in something familiar to them. But attention should not be fastened on the form or style.
It is because of this that included in the styles of Arabic used in the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition is ‘divine condescension to the minds of men’ in consideration of people’s understanding and as a concession made to their intelligences. For example, the verses , Then He established Himself on the Throne; The hand of Allah is over their hands; And your Lord comes. And the verse Until when he reached the setting of the sun, he found it set in a spring of murky water, and its likes. And the verse, And the sun runs its course, and those similar to it. These are all examples of this style.
This is the Book; in it is guidance sure, without doubt.
Conclusion
The difficulty or obscurity of speech arises either from the muddled words and style – and there is nothing of this in the Qur’an of Clear Exposition – or because the meaning is subtle and profound, or of high value, or unfamiliar or rare; it as though acts coyly before the understanding, and in order to excite its appetite hides itself so as to accord itself value and importance. The obscurities of the Qur’an are of this sort.
Reminder As in Hadiths, all the verses of the Qur’an have an inward (batın; Ar. bāṭin) and an outward (zahir; Ar. ẓāhir) meaning; and each of those have a moral (had; Ar. ḥadd) and an anagogical or mystical meaning (muttala’; Ar. maṭla‘ or muṭṭala‘); and each of those have numerous branches and boughs. The Islamic sciences testify to this. Each of these levels has a degree, a value, a station, and these have to be distinguished between. They do not, however, impinge on each other. But complications lead to doubt. If the sphere of causes (dâire‑i esbab) is confused with that of beliefs (dâire‑i akâid), it leads to laziness under the name of reliance on Allah, or to joining the Mu‘tazilites (i‘tizal) and calling it having recourse to causes; if those spheres and degrees are not differentiated, it produces the results described.