people with his claim. We replied, ‘Allah, Blessed and Exalted, did not call His speech a thing in the Quran. He applied the term “thing” only to what came into being through His word. Have you not heard His words:

“Our word to a thing, when We intend it, is only to say to it, ‘Be,’ and it is.” (40) [al-Nahl 40]

The thing is not His word; rather, it is what came into being through His word. In another verse, He says:

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

The thing, then, is His command; the thing is only what came into being through His command.’”

He said: “Among the signs and proofs that He does not include His speech among created things are the words of Allah—exalted be His praise—concerning the wind He sent against ‘Ād:

“It destroys everything by its Lord’s command.” [al-Ahqāf 25]

Yet that wind passed over things it did not destroy: their homes and dwellings