al-Zuhrī states that when Moses heard his Lord’s speech, he asked: ‘My Lord, is what I have heard Your speech?’ He replied: ‘Yes, Moses, it is My speech. I spoke to you only with the power of ten thousand tongues. Mine is the power of all tongues, and I am more powerful still. I spoke to you only to the extent that your body could bear; had I spoken to you with greater power, you would have died.’

He continued: When Moses returned to his people, they said to him: ‘Describe your Lord’s speech to us.’ He replied: ‘Glory be to Allah! How could I describe it to you?’ They said: ‘Then liken it to something.’ He said: ‘Have you heard the sounds of thunderclaps coming with the sweetest sound you have ever heard? It is something like that.’

We said to the Jahmiyyah: ‘Who is it who will say to the people on the Day of Resurrection:

“O Jesus, son of Mary, did you tell the people, ‘Take me and my mother as two gods’?” (Al-Mā’idah 116)

Is it not Allah who says this?’

They replied: ‘Allah will bring something into being, and it will speak on His behalf, just as He brought something into being that spoke to Moses.’

We said: ‘Then who is it who says:

“We will surely question those to whom messengers were sent” — the verse, Al-A‘rāf 6.

Is it not Allah Most High?’

They replied: ‘In all these cases, something is merely brought into being and speaks on Allah’s behalf.’ We said: ‘You have indeed made a monstrous