Vocabulary

Nūḥīhi (“We reveal it”): Waḥy is the casting of a matter into another’s inner being, whether this casting is through creation (takwīn), or through entering the heart, and whether what enters the inner realm is knowledge, faith, light, whispers, or other than these; and whether that person is human, angel, or other than these two; and whether this casting is with or without intermediary.(185) Al-Rāghib also says: Waḥy is a swift indication, and because it contains swiftness, a swift matter is called “amr waḥīy”; and that swift indication is sometimes through coded speech, sometimes through pure sound without composition, sometimes through indication by means of some bodily parts, and sometimes through writing… and divine speech that is cast to prophets and saints is called waḥy.(186)

Al-Farrāʾ has said: The Arabs consider waḥy and īḥāʾ to have the same meaning.(187)

Aqlāmahum (“their pens”): Aqlām is the plural of qalam. Its root is qalm, meaning to cut or trim from something hard (al-qaṣṣ min al-shayʾ al-ṣalb) like a nail, reed, or spearhead, and this meaning has become specific to the writing instrument (pen) and the means of archery (arrow).(188)

The pen is called qalam because it is cut (taqṭīʿ) and smoothed. “Taqlīm al-aẓfār” means cutting nails. An arrow is also called qalam because it has cuts and is sectioned and smooth.(189) What is meant by qalam in the Qur’an is the instrument of writing and inscription: “Nūn. By the Pen and what they write”(190) “If all the trees on the earth were pens, and the sea replenished with seven more seas [were ink], the words of God would not be spent. Indeed God is all-mighty, all-wise”.(191)

Yakhtaṣimūn (“they contend”): Ikhtiṣām means disputation, and the form iftiʿāl here is one of the cases where it has the meaning of mufāʿala.