It is also established from him in both Sahīh collections, through more than one chain of transmission, that:

“Say: He is Allah, the One”

is equivalent to one third of the Quran.

This is because the Quran consists of either informative or performative speech. Informative speech concerns either the Creator or created beings. Thus, one third consists of narratives, one third of commands, and one third of affirming Allah’s oneness. In this respect, this surah is equivalent to one third of the Quran.

Moreover, although all this speech shares the same Speaker, in that He spoke it all, it varies in excellence according to its subject matter. His speech in which He describes Himself and commands that His oneness be affirmed is greater than His speech in which He mentions some of His creatures and commands something of lesser importance than affirming His oneness.

Furthermore, if some speech is better and more beneficial for people, it necessarily follows that it is intrinsically superior in this respect. Differences in its reward and benefit arise only from differences in its intrinsic excellence. Otherwise, if two things were equal in every respect, neither could bring a greater reward or greater benefit than the other.

The purpose here is to establish two points:

First: those who hold al-Ash‘arī and other speculative theologians like him in high esteem—such as al-Bayhaqī, Ibn ‘Asākir, and others—were aware that al-Shāfi‘ī and other leading scholars had condemned speculative theology. They stated that the speculative theology being condemned was that of the proponents of innovation. They said that, in those scholars’ time, only the proponents of innovation were known for engaging in speculative theology,