thereby making His knowledge of a thing’s existence identical (1) with His knowledge of its non-existence, and His knowledge that it will be obeyed identical with His knowledge that it will be disobeyed. This applies only if one first affirms that He knows particular, individual realities; those among them who refuse to do so maintain that He knows absolutely nothing of any determinate existent (2).

They are just as confused about His speech. Some of them do not affirm speech for Him at all: in their view He has never spoken and will never speak; He issues no command or prohibition, addresses no one and engages in no speech whatsoever. Those who stand a little closer to Islam claim that all such speech is a created entity which He brings into being either in mid-air or upon the Preserved Tablet.

Others assert that His speech is a single, indivisible meaning (3)—one that has neither parts nor wholes and consists of neither letters nor sounds. That one, undivided meaning, they say, is the very substance of all His Scriptures: the Quran is identical with the Torah, and both are identical with the Gospel and the Psalms; the various titles differ only because the verbal expressions that convey that single meaning differ. They further contend that this meaning belongs to neither the category of knowledge (4) nor that of volition; rather (5), its reality is wholly distinct from theirs (6).

They then allow that this alleged meaning may be grasped by all five senses: it can be heard, seen, touched, smelled, and even tasted. Likewise, they deem it possible for every other accident to be perceived by every mode of perception, so that sounds may be smelled, seen, tasted, and touched, while scents may be heard.