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82chapter twoAnd he [MuÈammad] does not talk [ yanãiq] capriciously. It is onlya revelation [waÈy un ] being revealed [ yåȧ]… ( Al-Najm 53:3–4,FM)It was thought that the two verses equate what MuÈammad (ß) said( yanãiq) with divine revelation (waÈy). This led to the erroneous viewthat the Qur"an and the sunna are two categories of revealed orinspired word. It has been overlooked that Al-Najm 53:3-4 wererevealed in Mecca at a time when MuÈammad (ß) was confrontedby strong opposition from the Ahl al-Quraish. They had questionedthe validity of MuÈam mad’s (ß) claim to have received revelationsfrom God. They did not question MuÈammad’s (ß) own words butonly what he presented as divine revelation. Verses 3 and 4 wererevealed as an assurance of the divine origins of his revelations fromGod, not an assurance of the sacrality of MuÈammad’s sayings asprophet and human being. 1111MS adds in a footnote the following explanation: ‘A short clarification is inorder here in order to tackle the fateful legacy of synonymicist philology that holdsthe minds of our #ulam§" in a firm grip. Against that we hold the non-synonymousdefinitions of philological terms, such as utterance (nuãq), word (qawl), lexeme (lafí),and speech act (kal§m), that we derived from modern linguistics and classical, nonsynonymicistphilology. We start with a quote from Qaãr al-nad§ wa-ball al-ßad§ byJam§l al-DÊn b. Hish§m al-AnߧrÊ (d. 708 AH): [Begin of quote] ‘A word (kalima) isan utterance that can be found either alone or in a compound; a word (qawl) consistsof a lexeme (lafí) that carries meaning, but not all lexemes are words; lexemes involvevocal sounds that are based on the letters of the alphabet—they may meansomething or not. Thus, a word consists of a lexeme, denoting a specific meaning,that might be derived from one single sentence, such as: ‘Nay, this is a word he isspeaking’. A word, given that it consists of a lexeme that carries meaning, can occursingly, such as Zayd, servant, bed etc., but it might form a compound if it consists ofmore than just one lexeme, such as the young boy Zayd, see verse 3 of SåratMuÈammad: ‘Thus Allah coins their similitudes for mankind.’’ [End of quote]An utterance (nuãq) is a vocal articulation that involves an intelligent connectionof different lexemes (alf§í), to the extent that they are logically and meaningfullylinked to each other. We might also call this the area of syntax. An utterance (nuãq) isalso used to produce meaningful articulations through which logically and meaningfullywords (kalim§t) are interconnected in different ways. We might call this the areaof grammar. The lexeme (lafí) of an utterance is a sound which the tongue, lips, andvocal cords produce in order to be heard. This can be found with humans as well asanimals when dogs bark, wolves howl, or birds sing. A word (qawl), in contrast, couldhold only one, singular segment or unit of this sequence of vocal articulation. A word(qawl) contains the meaning that is transported from the speaker to the listener inorder to be understood.’[The difference is here made between the words q§la All§h and naãaqa al-nabÊ,which are for MS not just two words for ‘saying’ but denote different meanings.Whereas q§la All§h denotes the real speaker and communicator of a meaningful