to you from your Lord. (1)

The Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—would present himself to the tribes during the pilgrimage season and proclaim:

“Is there no man who will take me to his people, that I may convey the speech of my Lord? Quraysh have barred me from conveying the speech of my Lord.” (2)

It is well known that the Muʿtazilah do not claim that any part of the Quran was produced by either Gabriel or Muhammad; rather, they maintain (3) that the two merely recite it just as we recite it.

If, however, you assert that Allah ascribed it to one of them because he uttered it with his own movements and sounds, then the Quran would—according to you—be the word of everyone who pronounces it, whether Muslim or unbeliever, ritually pure or in a state of major impurity; indeed, when a disbeliever recites it, the Quran would, on your view, be his word. After that, Allah’s declaration

“Indeed, it is surely the word of a noble messenger” (5)

would be meaningless, for on your principle it would be both the word of a noble messenger and the word of a wicked reprobate.

In the same way, the Muʿtazilah appealed to His saying,

“No new reminder comes to them from their Lord” (6),

and claimed that Allah originated it in mid-air. Some among you then used this to argue that the revealed Quran is originated, but added