Ninth:
There is no doubt that we speak of a man’s words as “inhering in him.” Yet, at the same time, we also say that those very words are “written on the parchment.” Indeed, people will say, “This is exactly So-and-so’s speech—this is the very text,” and other such expressions that make it clear that what is inscribed on the parchment is precisely the speech the speaker himself uttered, with neither addition nor omission; no other discourse has been written there.

By saying this they do not intend that the script itself is identical to the sound, or identical to the meaning, for no rational person would say such a thing.

If someone objects:
“Among the Muslims are those who claim that the pre-eternal, primordial speech of Allah—or Allah’s uncreated speech—is present in human breasts and in the written codices without separation. Some of these even say that what is heard from a human reciter is the eternal sound, or a sound that is uncreated. Others maintain that the eternal letter, or the uncreated letter, is in the parchment, and it has been reported of some of them that they say the same about the ink. Still others contend that the Eternal has indwelt the muṣḥaf and the like.”

The Christians then say, “We are just like such people.”

It is answered: The reply consists of several points.
One of them is that the purpose here is to set forth the truth with which Allah sent His messengers, and He revealed—