The Sunni (1) who reveres the sanctity of Allah’s Speech replied:

“You, O Jahmi, have claimed that the outward sense of the Quran—Allah’s proof against His servants, the finest, truest, most beautiful and most eloquent of words, by which He guides His slaves, a healing for what is in the breasts, a guidance and mercy for the believers, and a book from heaven than which none is more guiding, more excellent, or more complete—you have violated its sanctity and savaged it (2), imputing to it the most repulsive deficiency and flaw. You allege that its plain wording and import affirm a being whose face bears many eyes, who has but one side upon which are numerous hands, and who possesses a single shin. According to you, therefore, the apparent description by which Allah portrays Himself in His Book points to this vile and abhorrent depiction, so that—God forbid—He would be describing Himself with the ugliest of attributes in the clear text of His Speech.

What attack upon the Quran could be graver than the attack of one who makes this its outward meaning?! Is such a claim anything other than the stance of those who “made the Quran ʿiḍīn (into fragments)” (3), rending it (4) with falsehood and declaring, “It is sorcery,” or “poetry,” or “a fabricated lie”? Indeed, in one respect your claim is uglier than theirs, for they at least acknowledged the majesty of the discourse, its noble worth, loftiness, and grandeur—so much so that the very leader of disbelief once said of it, “By Allah, his speech is endowed with a sweetness; it is clothed in a brilliance; its lowest part is abundant, and its highest part bears ripe fruit” (5).