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When they (1) said, “Do not say (2) that Allah’s speech consists of letters and sound subsisting in Him; rather, it is a meaning subsisting in His Essence,” I replied—by way of reporting what I had previously stated—that none of this wording appears in my discourse either. Indeed, the claim that the Quran is letters and sound subsisting in Him is an innovation, and the claim that it is only a meaning subsisting in Him is likewise an innovation; none of the early generations said either of these. In what I have written there is nothing innovative; rather, I have affirmed what the predecessors unanimously agreed upon, namely, that the Quran is the speech of Allah, uncreated—an entirely sound statement.

Thus I have never said that the letters are not from Allah’s speech, or that the meanings are not from Allah’s speech, or that Allah—exalted is He—did not speak with letters, sounds, and meanings that exist within Himself. What I clarified is that whoever restricts the Quran to nothing but letters and sound subsisting in Allah is an innovator, for his view entails that the meanings are neither part of the Quran nor of Allah’s speech. Likewise, whoever restricts the Quran to nothing but a meaning subsisting in Him is an innovator, for his view entails that the letters (4) of the Quran are not (5) part of the Quran, that Allah did not speak them, and that all of Allah’s speech is nothing but one single meaning (6). I had already stated this earlier in my answer to the Egyptian fatwa (7), in which it was said: