the listener, through which he perceives what has always existed. Likewise, His manifesting Himself—according to those who deny that He is separate from His servants and that He removes for them a veil separate from them—is nothing more than the creation of perception in their eyes, without there being any veil separate from them that He removes for them.

A third group, seeing how objectionable both views were, said:

“Rather, He speaks with sound and letters after not having spoken. His speech comes into being, subsists in His essence, and is connected to His will and power.”

They rejected the statement:

“He has always spoken whenever He wills,”

because this would entail a succession of events, one after another. This is the very argument they used to establish that the bodies of the world came into being.

Let the knowledgeable believer reflect on how this newly introduced, innovated discourse divided the Muslim community and sowed enmity and hatred among its members. Each group is driven to resemble those who believe in part of the Scripture and disbelieve in part, for each group holds some truth that the other denies.

Those who said that the Quran was created were led to this position only because they saw that speech could not be inseparable from the essence in the way knowledge is. Rather, speech is connected to the speaker’s will and power. They therefore said:

“It is one of the attributes of action, and a speaker is one who produces speech.”

Yet they affirmed no act except one separate