but say: unẓurnā (attend to us)’ (1); ‘and do not say of those who are slain in the path of Allah, “They are dead”’ (2); ‘and never say about anything, “I will do that tomorrow”’ (3); and He said (4): ‘So do not say to them “Fie!” nor rebuke them’ (5); and He said: ‘And do not pursue that of which you have no knowledge’ (6); ‘so do not invoke alongside Allah another deity’ (7); and He said: ‘And do not kill your children for fear of poverty’ (8); and He said (9): ‘And do not keep your hand chained to your neck, nor spread it out altogether, lest you sit reproached and exhausted’ (29) [al-Isrāʾ: 29]; ‘and do not keep your hand chained to your neck’ (10); ‘and do not take the life that Allah has made sacred except with justice’ (11); ‘and do not approach the property of the orphan except in the best manner’ (12); ‘and do not walk upon the earth exultantly’ (13). Verses of this sort are many throughout the Quran.

These, then, are the things Allah has forbidden, and He never told us: Do not say, “The Quran is My Speech.”

I said: This is a compelling proof. For if, as the Jahmīs allege, the Quran were a created entity, separate from Him—like the heavens and the earth, or like the speech of the bone, the arms, and the legs—