tion. That is to say: “I give you the sustenance. When you give some of My property to one of My servants, you cannot place them under an obligation.”

Fourth Condition: You should give it to a person who will spend it on his livelihood, for alms given to those who will squander it idly is not acceptable. The word “spend” points to this condition.

Fifth Condition: This is to give in God’s name. The words “We bestow on them as sustenance” states this. That is to say: “The property is Mine; you should give it in My name.”

These conditions may be extended. That is, the form almsgiving should take, with what goods. It may be given as learning and knowledge. It may be given as words, or as acts, or as advice. The word “what” in “out of what” indicates these various sorts through its generality. Furthermore, it indicates this with the sentence itself, because it is absolute and expresses generality. Thus, with the five conditions in this short sentence describing almsgiving, it opens up a broad field before the mind, granting it to it through the sentence as a whole. Thus, in the sentence as a whole, the composition has many aspects.

Similarly, the ordering of the words encompasses a broad compositional sphere and has many aspects. And between phrases.

For example, “Say: He is God, the One”(112:1) contains six sentences. Three of them are positive and three negative. It proves six degrees of divine unity and at the same time refutes six ways of associating partners with God. Each sentence is both the proof of the other sentences and their result. For each sentence has two meanings. With one meaning it is their result, and with the other the proof. That is to say, within Sura al-Ikhlas are thirty suras composed of proofs that demonstrate each another to be as well-ordered as the sura itself. For example:

Say, He is God, because He is One, because He is the Eternally Besought, because He begets not, because He is not begotten, because there is none that is equal to Him.

And:

And there is none that is equal to Him, because He is not begotten, because He begets not, because He is Eternally Besought, because He is One, because He is God.

And:

He is God, so He is One, so He is the Eternally Besought, so He begets not, so He is not begotten, so there is none that is equal to Him.