and discourse and command, and that His command is distinct from His creation. Rather, it is eternal and beginningless, just as He is beginningless. This is stated in the Quran, in His words, Most High:

“Surely, His is the creation and the command.”
(Al-A‘rāf: 54)

And His words, Most High:

“To Allah belongs the command before and after.”
(Al-Rūm: 4)

And His words, Most High:

“Our word to a thing, when We will it, is only to say to it, ‘Be,’ and it is.”
(Al-Nahl: 40)

Thus, all things come into being only through His word and command. And His words, Most High:

“His command, when He wills a thing, is only to say to it, ‘Be,’ and it is.”
(Yā Sīn: 82)

And His words, Most High:

“And when your Lord said”
(Al-Baqarah: 30)

“And when We said to the angels”
(Al-Baqarah: 34)

“Allah said”
(Al-Mā’idah: 115)

Thus, revelation attributes speech to Allah in a more specific sense than it attributes creation to Him. A created thing is attributed to Allah Most High in only one respect: that of creation and origination. Command, however, is not attributed to Him in that same way. Otherwise, the distinction between creation and command, and between what pertains to creation and what pertains to command, would disappear.

They said: From the standpoint of reason, a rational person recognizes a self-evident distinction between “He said” and “He acted,” and between “He commanded” and “He created.” If speech were an act like all other acts, this self-evident distinction would be nullified. It is therefore established that speech is distinct from action, and that it precedes