Likewise, the Jahmiyyah from among the Muʿtazilah and others denied that Allah possesses any speech(1) inherent in His essence, or any will that subsists in Him. In open defiance of self-evident reason—which dictates that a speaker is described as speaking by means of speech residing within himself—they claimed that a speaker may in fact speak by means of speech that exists outside of him(2). They further asserted that He can be called “willing” through a will that is neither in Him nor in anything else, or that will is merely a privative attribute, or that it is nothing other than the created objects of will(3); and that the command is simply the created sound produced in something else.

The true import of their doctrine is therefore to belie the very realities that the messengers have proclaimed regarding Allah’s speech, His love, and His volition, even though they may still adopt the same phrases used by the messengers. This is the attitude of the heretical hypocrites—whether Sabians, idolaters, philosophers, Qarmaṭians, or the like—toward what the messengers have taught concerning faith in Allah and the Last Day(4), the angels, the Book, and the prophets, as well as the commandments(5) they issued. Yet they continue to acknowledge much of what(6) the messengers reported and to extol their rank; they believe in part of the Scripture while disbelieving in part.

These philosophers, however, contend that the speech of Allah is nothing but the effusion that flows from the Active Intellect(7) onto the pure, sanctified souls of the prophets