However, the style of speech may also be in accordance with the imagination of the one addressed, like the styles of [the literary devices used in] the Qur'an. Don't forget this! Moreover, the degrees of the styles are various. Some are softer than the breeze; when it blows, it is signified by the speech as a whole. And some are more covert than the subterfuges of war; they can be divined only by masters of the art of warfare. Like al-Zamakhsharî divined from the verse "Who can give life to [dry] bones and decomposed ones [at that]?,"(36:78) "Are there any contenders for the fight?" If you like, study the verses mentioned previously; you will find in them things verifying the subtlest aspects of these matters. And if you wish, visit Imam al-Bûsayrî , and see how he writes his prescription in the style of a physician with his words:

Shed tears from eyes filled

With forbidden things; stick to a diet of repentance.

The physician's style is alluded to with the word diet. And listen to Sulay-man's Hoopoe; how it refers to its engineering¹ with the words: "That they should not worship Allâh, Who brings to light what is hidden in the heavens and the earth..."(27:25)

The Fourth Matter

Know that speech possesses power and strength only if it confirms the lines:

Our expressions are diverse but your beauty is one,

And all [of us] point to that beauty;

[it should confirm them] with all its words, order, and phrases responding to each other; and each taking the hand of the other and supporting it, and apart from its particular fruits each assisting to its own extent the general purport. This shared aim resembles a pool fed from all sides by rivulets. The mutual response gives rise to mutual assistance, which gives rise to order, from which harmony proceeds, from which fairness is born, and essential beauty. This secret of eloquence sparkles on every part of the Qur'an, especially on "That is the Book concerning which is no doubt, guidance sure for those who fear Allâh,"(2:2) and others like it, as you saw in "But if a breath of your Sustainer's punishment touches them."(21:46)

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1}According to al-Kashshaf (al-Zamakhshari), this signifies water-divining.