They say: “This Qur’an is the very speech of Allah which His Messenger delivered. The Muslims recite it, and when one listens to a reciter he is hearing the speech of Allah, though they recite it by means of their own actions and voices, and it is heard from a reciter who utters it in his own voice. Thus the speech belongs to the Creator, while the voice belongs to the reciter.

They also say: “Allah spoke it—and with it He spoke to Moses—and Moses heard the call of Allah with his own ears. Allah addressed him with the very voice that Moses heard, as is made clear in the Books of Allah: the Qur’an, the Gospel, the Torah, and others besides them.”

After the era of the Companions and the leading Successors, there arose a negating faction who said, “Allah did not truly speak to Moses, nor did He take Abraham as an intimate friend.” The Muslims executed their first leader, al-Jaʿd, after which they were led by a man called al-Jahm; hence they came to be known as the Jahmiyyah, deniers of the divine names and attributes.

At other times they would say, “Allah has not spoken at all, nor did He address Moses; such expressions are no more than figurative language.”