with an arduous ascent (17). Indeed, he reflected and calculated (18) (1) up to His words: “This is nothing but human speech” (2).

This claim was adopted by certain late-coming extremists among the scholastic theologians and Sufis who, beguiled by the discourse of the philosophers, fell into beliefs that run counter to the two foundational testimonies of Islam—bearing witness that there is no deity but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. Through the polytheism they introduced and their denial of the essence of prophethood, they embraced the very doctrine advanced (3) by the radical wing of the Jahmiyyah.

As for (4) the well-known Jahmiyyah among the Muʿtazilah and the like, they maintained that Allah creates speech in something other than Himself—whether in the air, amid the leaves of the tree from which Moses heard Him, or elsewhere—and that this, in their estimation, constitutes the Speech of Allah. When they assert that Allah truly speaks and truly possesses Speech, this is what they intend.

This (5) is an alteration of the innate reality upon which Allah fashioned His servants, of the language upon which all the children of Adam agree (6), and of the Scriptures that Allah sent down from heaven. For it is known by necessary innate perception, acknowledged by all mankind except those whom the devils have led astray (7)