The intellect is in minds, meaning the validity of the language's indications.

The validity of the language's indications: Language has valid indications because it conveys certain knowledge. And what conveys certain knowledge cannot be corrupted, so it must be valid. The validity of the language's indications is based on the obligation of discourse and its application to the accountable. Ignorance of these indications leads to the corruption of Sharia and confusion within it.

We return from the linguistic usage of language, in terms of linguistic وضع (wada'), to the linguistic indication of language in terms of linguistic وضع. Most of these issues revolve around three basic axes: the indication of the word on multiple meanings, metaphor and literal meaning, explicit and implicit, and command and prohibition.

A. The indication of the word on multiple meanings. All that is conceivable in speech and the meanings that words indicate are either unified or multiple. As for the unified meaning: As for the multiple meaning, the indication of the word on it varies into three types: the indication of the substitute, the indication of the encompassing, and the indication of specification.

First: The indication of the substitute: This is when the word indicates multiple meanings, and the meaning of the substitute is that...

Al-Mahdi did not accurately define the unified and the multiple. It appears from the examples he used that the unified represents the particular, and the multiple encompasses the genus. As for the type, it is unified in terms of agreement in reality, and multiple in terms of multiplicity in individuals.