affirm “a single meaning.” They thus adopted a position that entailed those consequences for which the majority of Muslims—indeed, the majority of rational people—so vehemently condemned them.

People objected to several aspects of their position: affirming a single meaning that is both command and statement; holding that the Arabic Quran is not part of Allah’s speech which He has spoken, and that the revealed speech is not Allah’s speech; maintaining that the Torah, the Gospel, and the Quran differ only in their verbal expressions, so that if the Torah were expressed in Arabic, it would be the Quran; and holding that Allah has no power to speak and does not speak by His will and choice. They also held that His speaking to those of His creatures to whom He spoke, such as Moses and Adam, consists merely of creating in them a perception of that meaning. Thus, speaking to them is nothing more than creating that perception.

Some of them say that hearing apprehends that meaning and everything that exists, so that everything that exists can be seen and heard, as Abū al-Hasan and others like him maintain.

Others say that this meaning is heard from the reciter along with his audible voice, as another group maintains.

The majority of rational people say that these views are known to be false