is the finest speech. It contains surahs, verses, and words, all of which consist of letters. It is truly heard from Him in a way that created beings can understand. There is no modality to His speaking or His addressing others. It is possible for Him, Glorified is He, to address many recipients simultaneously, addressing each with what He wills of him, without His addressing one distracting Him from addressing another.”

He said:

“Many scholars forbade attributing silence to Him. Some scholars of transmitted reports permitted attributing silence to Him because it occurs in the hadith, explaining: ‘It means His refraining today from rebuking, eliciting acknowledgment, and calling to account. A day will come when He will elicit acknowledgment, call to account, and rebuke. Thus, this refraining is what is meant by silence.’”

He said:

“The fundamental principle that must be understood is that sharing the same designations does not entail sameness between those so designated. If we say that Allah is Existent, Compassionate, One, Living, All-Knowing, All-Seeing, and One who speaks, and say that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, was existent, living, knowledgeable, hearing, seeing, and speaking, this does not constitute likening Allah to His creation, nor have we thereby contradicted any of the early generations or leading scholars. Rather, Allah has always existed; He has eternally been One, Living, Eternal, Self-Sustaining, All-Knowing, All-Hearing, All-Seeing, and One who speaks. He may not be described by the opposites of these attributes. Whoever exists among us, however, came into existence from nonexistence and became alive through a quality