This is why some of the early generations said:

“Whoever says that ‘Indeed, I am Allah. There is no deity except Me’ (Tā Hā: 14) is created has placed Allah’s speech on the same footing as Pharaoh’s words: ‘I am your lord, the Most High’ (al-Nāzi‘āt: 24).”

For, in his view, Allah created the former utterance in the tree and the latter in Pharaoh. Thus, if the former is Allah’s speech, the latter must also be Allah’s speech.

Sulaymān ibn Dāwūd al-Hāshimī—one of the leading scholars of Islam, comparable to al-Shāfi‘ī, Ahmad, Ishāq, Abū Ubayd, Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shayba, and others like them—said:

“Whoever says that the Quran is created is an unbeliever. If the Quran were created, as they claim, why would Pharaoh, for saying ‘I am your lord, the Most High,’ be more deserving of remaining in the Fire forever than this other speaker? Both, in his view, are created.”

Abū Ubayd was informed of this statement; he approved of it and found it impressive. Al-Bukhārī recorded this in his book Khalq Af‘āl al-‘Ibād (The Creation of People’s Acts).

Similar statements were also made by Abd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak, Abd Allāh ibn Idrīs, and Yahyā ibn Sa‘īd al-Qattān. This argument rests on the premise that Allah creates people’s acts. Thus, if He created in one locus the words, “Indeed, I am Allah. There is no deity except Me, so worship Me,” and in another locus, “I am your lord, the Most High,” then the locus in which He created the former utterance would be more deserving of punishment than Pharaoh. And if the former utterance were Allah’s speech, then Pharaoh’s words would also be Allah’s speech.