and from speaking of it, so the doctrine became hidden like other innovations, while both ordinary and learned people came to know with certainty that the Qur’an is the speech of Allah, uncreated.

Some scholars then tried to answer the objection of those who said, “What now inheres in us is created.” They replied, “The Qur’an is the uncreated speech of Allah, but the words we utter while reciting it are created, and our very act of recitation is created.”

Sometimes they even said, “What we are reading is created,” or, “This is not itself the speech of Allah.” Their intention was sound: to affirm that the attributes, voices, and actions of human beings are created. Yet they slipped when they spoke without qualification, or when they led people to think that the very Qur’an Muslims recite is created. They failed to grasp that when we refer to someone’s speech that has been conveyed from its original speaker—for instance, when we cite what has been transmitted from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, such as his words,

“Actions are judged only by intentions, and each person shall have only what he intended,”

and we say, “This is the speech of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him,” or when we cite a poet’s verse