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86chapter twoAnd remember God took a covenant from the People of the Book, tomake it known and clear [la-tubayyanunnahu] to mankind, and not tohide it… ($l #Imr§n 3:187) 15O people of the Book! There has come to you our Apostle, revealingto you [ yubayyinu lakum] much that you used to hide in the Book…( Al-M§"ida 5:15) 16‘And eat and drink, until the white thread of dawn appear [ yatabayyina]to you distinct from its black thread…’ ( Al-Baqara 2:187)It is clear that in this context the root meaning of b-y-n is ‘to makeapparent’, that is, visible to the eyes, something that is hidden,obscured, that is, invisible to the eyes. We hear further proof in thefollowing two verses:And Abraham prayed for his father’s forgiveness only because of apromise he had made to him. But when it became clear to him[tabayyana] that he was an enemy to God, he dissociated himself fromhim: for Abraham was most tender-hearted, forbearing. ( Al-Tawba9:114)He has created man; He has taught him speech (and intelligence)[ al-bay§n]. ( Al-RaÈm§n 55:3–4)In 9:114 we learn that tabayyana refers to the moment when theenmity of Abraham’s father to God became evident to Abraham—perceived by his senses and understood by his rational mind: 1715Most translators follow MS here, e.g., MF: ‘you shall reveal it to mankind’;AH: ‘make it known’; AhA: ‘to make (its truth) known’; synonymous use in AB:‘make it clear’; AA: ‘make it clear unto the people’; only MP equates tubayyanunnahuwith ‘to explain it’.16Similar to a previous footnote, MF: ‘to show you’; AH: ‘to make clear’; AhA:‘announcing many things’; AB, AA: ‘making clear to you’; again with the exceptionof MP: ‘explaining to you’ who regards yubayyinu more in the sense of ‘to elucidate’rather than MS: ‘to uncover’ or ‘to open out’. Lane (Book 1), distinguishes betweencircumstantial evidence and verbal evidence, the latter being ‘to make somethingapparent, manifest or perspicuous, either spoken or written’, and MS seems to followthis meaning of tubayyinu as ‘verbal evidence’.17On this point, MS has added a footnote stating that Allah has taught humanbeings how to use their language in order to communicate to other people, and heremarks how, through such intercommunicative skills, they establish groups andcommunities, that is, social cohesion in their daily life. The traditional scholars’insistence on the need of the sunna of the Prophet for the bay§n of the Book, seemsreally absurd in this respect, because [if bay§n means ‘to show’ and ‘to display’, andnot the narrow notion of ‘to explain"] why should communities in Tokyo, Cairo,Washington, or the Himalayas ever need the sunna of MuÈammad (ß) in order tohear God’s speech? Surely, the disclosure or pronouncement of the Book in all theselocations does not need the sunna of MuÈammad.