(2). Muskhil, or ambiguous, The following is given as an illustration: "And (their attendants) shall go round about them with vessels of silver and goblets. The bottles shall be bottles of silver." The difficulty here is that bottles are not made of silver, but of glass. The commentators say, however, that glass is dull in colour, though it has some lustre, whilst silver is white, and not so bright as glass. Now it may be, that the bottles of Paradise will be like glass bottles as regards their lustre, and like silver as regards their colour. But anyhow, it is very difficult to ascertain the meaning.
(3.) Mujmal. These are, first, sentences which may have a variety of interpretations, owing to the words in them being capable of several meanings; in that case the meaning which is given to the sentence in the Traditions relating to it should be acted on and accepted. Secondly, the sentence may contain some very rare word, and thus its meaning may be doubtful, as: "Man truly is by creation hasty." (Súra lxx. 19.) In this verse the word "halú'"—hasty—occurs. It is very rarely used, and had it not been for the following words, "when evil toucheth him, he is full of complaint; but when good befalleth him, he becometh niggardly," its meaning would not have been at all easy to understand.
The following is an illustration of the first kind of Mujmal sentences: "Stand for prayer (salát) and give alms," (zakát.) Both salát and zakát are 'Mushtarik' words. The people, therefore, did not understand this verse, so they applied to Muhammad for an explanation. He explained to them that "salát" might mean the ritual of public prayer,
standing to say the words "God is great," or standing to repeat a few verses of the Qurán; or it might mean private prayer. The primitive meaning of "zakát" is growing. The Prophet, however, fixed the meaning here to that of "almsgiving," and said, "Give of your substance one-fortieth part."
(4.) Mutashábih. These are sentences so difficult that men cannot understand them, a fact referred to in Súra iii. 3. (Ante. p. [49]), nor will they do so until the day of resurrection. The Prophet, however, knew their meaning. Such portions are the letters A, L, M; A, L, R; Y, A at the commencement of some of the Súras.[[53]] Such expressions also as "God's hand," "The face of God," "God sitteth," &c., come under this category.
The next point to be considered is the use of words in the Qurán, and here again the same symmetrical division into four classes is found, viz:—
(1.) Haqíqat, that is, words which are used in their literal meaning, as "rukú'," a prostration, and "salát" in the sense of prayer.
(2.) Majáz, or words which are used in a figurative sense, as "salát" in the sense of "námáz" a liturgical service.
(3.) Saríh, or words the meaning of which is quite evident, as, "Thou art divorced," "Thou art free."
(4.) Kinayáh, or words which, being used in a metaphorical sense, require the aid of the context to make their meaning clear, as: "Thou art separated," which may, as it