statements. Otherwise, he would be forced to call one of them a lie—God forbid.

This is a Decisive Word (Qawl Fasl) and a Definitive Proof (Burhan Qati') that no one can refute. This is because all the addresses in His Book—Exalted is He—using these Outward names, whether in praise or condemnation and of making lawful (tahlil) and making forbidden (tahrim), and of commanding and forbidding—you will not see an address among them but that it has an opposite that reverses it. For this reason, no Prophet came except with the opposite of what the one before him brought. This is to indicate that His intent—Exalted is He—is the affirmation of the Inward (Batin) and the annulment of the Outward (Zahir). Were it not for this, they [the Prophets] would not have manifested differences in religious laws, nor would the Almighty have abrogated [laws] in the Revealed Books.

Among the contradictory sayings is the condemnation of liars in His Mighty Book, yet the affirmation of the "lie" of Zuleika and the brothers of Joseph, as evidenced by the saying of the Almighty:

{If his shirt is torn from the front, then she has told the truth and he is of the liars. But if his shirt is torn from the back, then she has lied and he is of the truthful... (until His saying): ...So when he saw his shirt torn from the back, he said: "Indeed, it is of your [women's] trap; indeed, your trap is great."} (Yusuf: 26-28).