So if you say, “This is a narration (ḥikāyah) of Allah’s speech,” that claim is invalid, for in your view Allah’s speech is a purely abstract meaning, whereas what we have here consists of letters and meanings.

And if you say, “Rather, it is an expression (ʿibārah),” that too is invalid, because an expression is the wording that conveys a meaning, while here there are letters and meanings that, according to you, merely convey the primordial meaning.

If you then say, “These letters by themselves are the expression of that meaning,” the meanings that reside in our hearts still remain, as do the original letters by which the meaning—⦗1⦘ the meaning that subsists in the Divine Essence—was first conveyed. Those composite letters that, in your view, parallel these present letters you have not counted ⦗2⦘ among Allah’s speech. Hence the Muʿtazilah, with their view of narration, are on firmer ground than you with your dual claim of narration and expression.

The root of this error is that the Muʿtazilah said, “The Quran—indeed every act of speech—is nothing but letters and sounds,” whereas you said, “It is nothing but meanings.” Yet it is universally acknowledged that “speech” denotes both letters and meanings, wording ⦗3⦘ and meaning together, just as the word “human being” denotes both soul and body. When the meaning alone is sometimes called “discourse” or “speech,” or the letters alone are called “letters” or “speech,” that is only when there is a qualifying phrase ⦗4⦘ or contextual indicator.

This is one of the points on which the Muʿtazilah have boasted over you, for you have excluded composite letters from the category of speech—something for which both scholars and laypeople have reproached you.

The Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—said: “Allah has pardoned my community for what their souls whisper to them, so long as they do not speak of it ⦗5⦘ or act upon it.” Muʿādh asked him, “O Messenger of Allah, will we really be held accountable for what we utter?” He said, “May your mother be bereaved of you ⦗6⦘, O Muʿādh! And are people cast into the Fire …”