the Quran, like every other form of discourse, is nothing but letters and audible sounds that point to meanings. Yet they would not concede that Allah possesses speech which He Himself uttered and which subsists in Him, nor would they grant that these letters convey meanings that subsist in Allah at all—because, in their view, no knowledge, will, or any other attribute subsists in Him. Instead, they claimed that the letters and sounds are created entities which Allah brings into being within certain bodies, just as they allege that He created inside the very tree a voice that Moses heard, the letters of that voice being:

“Indeed, I am Allah; there is no deity except Me. So worship Me and establish the prayer for My remembrance.” (1)

There is no doubt that such a view entails that the tree itself would be the one declaring:

“Indeed, I am Allah; there is no deity except Me. So worship Me.” (2)

For the speaker of any speech is the being in whom that speech subsists, just as the mover is the one in whom the movement occurs, and the knower is the one in whom the knowledge resides. It is impossible for something to be called a speaker by virtue of words that subsist in another and not in it at all, just as it cannot be called knowledgeable or capable by a knowledge or power that exists only in something else, or called moving by a movement that exists only outside it. (3) By the same rigorous reasoning—accepted by the verifying scholars who affirm the divine attributes—one cannot be deemed an actor, creator, or originator through an action, creation, or origination that subsists only in something else. (4) Such is the doctrine of the people of hadith, the Sufis, the jurists, and a number of theologians. (5)

And it should be understood that, in reality, the Jahmiyyah, when they state