A rhetorically apt reply need not always reproduce the literal focus of the hearer’s question. A speaker may detect a mistaken assumption and supply what the hearer more urgently needs to know.
This is often explained as uslūb al-ḥakīm, the wise redirection of an inquiry. Someone preoccupied with an incidental detail may need clarification of a governing principle or practical consequence instead.
The technique is not evasiveness for its own sake. A well-judged redirection serves a genuine communicative need, correcting the question’s priorities while remaining intelligible to the intended audience.