Ibn Kullāb once asserted that the speech of Allah is nothing but a single meaning (1)—a notion that had never occurred to anyone before. How, then, can it be claimed that by using the plural form He actually meant [al-wāḥid] (the singular)? (2) For this reason one almost never finds [hādhā] (this) (3) in the first-person form referring to Allah, nor in the form used when addressing Him, although some have tried to read it into His words: “My Lord, return me” (Q 23:99) (4).

As for their appeal to the verse, “Indeed, Abraham was an ummah” (Q 16:120) (5), claiming it means “he was like an entire community,” that is not the case. Rather, ummah (6), as explained by ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd and others (7), designates a teacher of goodness—an exemplar who is followed. The term derives from al-iʾtimām (being followed), just as qudwah (exemplar) comes from al-iqtidāʾ (emulation); it is not borrowed from ummah in the sense of a people or nation.

Likewise, their argument concerning His statement, “We shall set up the scales of justice” (Q 21:47) (8)(9)—insisting that there is only one scale—is unfounded. The plural is genuinely intended in this wording, either because of the multitude of instruments that—