true speech from Allah there is, and how often He speaks with true speech to ordinary individuals—just as He spoke to Moses son of ‘Imrān, His confidant, brought near to Him and singled out to be spoken to!

Furthermore, His words, Exalted is He:

“It is not for any human being that Allah should speak to him except by revelation or from behind a veil.”
[al-Shūrā: 51]

imply that speaking from behind a veil is a kind of communication distinct from revelation, and that the person addressed in this way is veiled from seeing Allah. For audible speech may occur while the listener sees the speaker, or while he is veiled from him. Revelation, by contrast, is cast into the recipient’s heart, so there is no need to divide it into two kinds.

For this reason, the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said in an authentic hadith:

“There is not one of you but his Lord will speak to him, with neither a barrier nor an interpreter between them.”

If the speech heard were something subsisting within the listener, with no external existence, it would belong to the same category as revelation, to which the expression “from behind a veil” would not appropriately apply. For someone experiencing this has heard nothing external to himself whose speaker could sometimes be seen and at other times be concealed from the listener by a veil.

This matter is discussed at length in its proper place. The purpose here is to draw attention to how one can recognize which views agree with the Quran and which contradict it, for various groups have ventured into this subject. Most people hear what one person and another say without understanding the true nature of their views or their respective degrees of closeness to, or remoteness from, the truth.