Some among them went on to say: “If the Speech is eternal, then what is eternal can never consist of letters and sounds, for letters and sounds occur successively, one after another. Nor can it comprise multiple discrete meanings, for an endless plurality of meanings would entail multiplicity, and selecting a finite set over another would be sheer arbitrariness. Hence the eternal must be a single, indivisible meaning that is at once command and prohibition, declaration and inquiry. Rendering that single meaning in Arabic is called ‘Qur’an,’ in Hebrew ‘Torah,’ and in Syriac ‘Gospel.’

This is the foundational view of Ibn Kullāb and of those who agreed with him, such as al-Ashʿarī.”}