—nor anyone from any other nation—the words “create” and “originate” except with reference to something that came into existence after not being—something preceded by its own absence and by the presence of other things. The meaning of these terms is instinctively understood in every language on earth.

Moreover, a word that is current among both common folk and scholars cannot legitimately be assigned a meaning that only a handful of people can grasp. Had the sense you claim been correct, it would have been conceivable to only a select few. It is therefore impossible that a general, widely circulated term was originally coined for such an arcane notion, for that would nullify the very purpose of language and frustrate the prophets’ task of making things clear to humanity. How much more unreasonable is your claim when that alleged meaning is patently false in sound reason, just as it is false in reliable transmission.

Indeed, no one has ever referred to the eternal, pre-existent One—who has always been and will always be—as “originated,” “created,” “fashioned,” or “produced.” What you have put forward, then, is an outright lie about the prophets, upon them be peace, contrived to make people imagine that you agree with them.

The divine scriptures, such as the Torah and the Qur’an, state explicitly that Allah created the heavens, the earth, and all that lies between them in six days, and the eternal, pre-existent Being cannot be something created in six days. Those same scriptures likewise recount that Allah spoke to Moses and called out to him from the mount, from within the tree—identified in the Torah as the bramble bush—and that Moses, peace be upon him, would cast down his staff and it would turn into a serpent.