it possesses a distinctive quality that warrants this attribution; merely being created and owned does not warrant being singled out in this way.

This demonstrates the invalidity of the interpretations offered by those who deny Allah’s attributes concerning His words:

“What prevented you from prostrating to what I created with My two hands?”

They offer interpretations that imply no distinction specific to Adam, such as “by His power” or “by His favor,” or claim that the meaning is “I Myself created him,” or that Allah attributed him to Himself by way of special designation. All these meanings, however, apply equally to the angels, Iblīs, and animals. It is therefore necessary to affirm that Allah—glorified be He—created Adam with His two hands, thereby granting him a distinction that these others do not possess.

Likewise, when the noble Quran—or anything else—is described as Allah’s speech, this does not entail that it is attributed to Him as something He created and owns, for two reasons:

First, speech is an attribute. When attributes are ascribed to Him, they are ascribed as His attributes, not as His creations.

Second, this would imply that every utterance Allah creates is His speech. Thus, whenever He causes any created being to speak, its speech would be His. Anyone who knows that Allah is the Creator of all things would then be obliged to regard all speech in existence as His speech. This is what the Jahmīs who espouse divine indwelling have done, such as Ibn ‘Arabī and others, who said:

“All speech in existence is His speech;
Its prose and verse are alike to us.”