the people of the earth on this matter, and that the philosophers claim that Allah’s speech exists only within the souls (1) of the prophets—meanings are poured (2) into them by the al-ʿaql al-faʿʿāl (Active Intellect), and in their souls those meanings turn into letters. Likewise, what they call the angels (3) of Allah are, in their view, nothing but the luminous images that arise in the prophets’ hearts. This echoes the words of the “philosopher” (4) of Quraysh, al-Walid ibn al-Mughirah: “This is nothing but the speech of a human being” (5).

The substance of their position is that the Quran is the composition of the noble Messenger, though it is, they say, an elevated discourse issuing from a purified soul.

These are (6) the Ṣābiʾah (7). The Jahmiyyah drew near to them and asserted: “Allah has not spoken, nor does He speak, nor does speech subsist in Him; rather, His speech is only what He creates in the air or elsewhere.” A group of dialecticians among the affirmers of the attributes then adopted part of that view (8), saying: “Rather, one half—the meaning—is Allah’s speech, while the other half—the letters—is not Allah’s speech but one of His creations.”

Among the affirmers of the attributes who insist that the Quran is uncreated there is a dispute: should it be said that it is eternal without beginning and unrelated to His will, or that He speaks when He wills and is silent when He wills? Two well-known views exist on this, both cited by al-Harith al-Muhasibi (9) from