of al-Bārīʾ (the Creator), while the voice is the voice of the reciter. Yet among the Muʿtazilah there are those who regard the utterance of the second person to be nothing more than a ḥikāyah (narration) of the speech of the first, and they themselves dispute about this narration: is it in fact identical to the narrated wording, as al-Jubbāʾī says(1), or something other than it, as his son maintains(2)?—two opinions(3).
The correct assessment is that the one who merely narrates another’s words is not the same as the one who conveys them. The narrator is like someone who recites the words to himself, echoing the original speaker, whereas the conveyor intends to transmit someone else’s discourse. In such matters intention is decisive: whoever pronounces
“All praise belongs to Allah, Lord of the worlds” (5)
as Qur’anic recitation(6) is not permitted to do so(7) while in a state of janābah (major ritual impurity), unlike the one who utters it with a different intention(8)
= Al-Albani: “Authentic.” See Sahih al-Jamiʿ al-Sagheer wa Ziyadatih (al-Fath al-Kabir), vol. 3, p. 194.
(1) In both the manuscript and printed editions it reads yuquluhu (“he says it”).
(2) This refers to Abu Hashim ʿAbd al-Salam ibn Abi ʿAli Muhammad al-Jubai. His and his father’s biographies were given above.
(3) First: the view of Abu al-Hudhayl and Abu ʿAli al-Jubai that al-hikayah (narration) is identical with al-mahki (what is narrated), since they hold that speech endures and is a meaning distinct from its sound. Second: the position of Abu Hashim and his followers, and of the two Jafars—Jaʿfar ibn Harb and Jaʿfar ibn Mubashshir al-Thaqafi—as stated earlier, and the doctrine of Abu al-Qasim and the Ikhshidiyya, that al-hikayah is not al-mahki, because for them speech consists solely of sounds that do not remain, making this view necessary. See al-Muheet bi al-Takleef by Qadi ʿAbd al-Jabbar, ed. al-Hasan ibn Ahmad ibn Matuwiya, p. 327.
(4) In the printed edition it reads yuquluhu (“he says it”).
(5) In both the manuscript and printed editions it reads yaqṣud (“he intends”).
(6) The words in quotation marks are an addition found in both the manuscript and printed editions.
(7) The original reads lakin (“but”), which is a scribal error; the variant preserved in the manuscript and printed editions is probably correct.
(8) In both the manuscript and printed editions it reads biqaṣd (“with intention”).