with both groups agreeing that the entire Quran is Allah’s speech: no one other than Him brought any part of it into being, nor did He create any part of it in anyone else—neither its letters nor its meanings. The latter group included Husayn al-Karābīsī, Dāwūd ibn ‘Alī al-Asbahānī, and others like them.

Alongside this, there arose people who adopted Ibn Kullāb’s view: that Allah’s speech is a single meaning subsisting in the speaker himself, constituting the command to do everything He has commanded, the prohibition of everything He has forbidden, and the statement of everything He has communicated; and that, if expressed in Arabic, it is the Quran, and if expressed in Hebrew, it is the Torah.

The majority of people, from Ahl al-Sunnah, the Mu‘tazilah, and other groups, rejected this, saying:

“Sound reason plainly shows this view to be false. For if the Torah is translated into Arabic, it does not become the Quran; nor is the meaning of ‘Say: He is Allah, One’ the same as the meaning of ‘May the hands of Abū Lahab perish.’”

Some who did not share this understanding nevertheless agreed with them in stating without qualification that recitation is distinct from what is recited and that it is created. By recitation, however, they meant people’s actions and voices.