word of it will remain in people’s hearts, nor a single letter in the written copies of the Quran. Most of those present agreed with this, and those who disputed it fell silent. On another occasion, outside this gathering, I spoke to one of them and showed him the creed compiled by Imam al-Qādirī, which states that the Quran is the speech of Allah and came forth from Him. He hesitated over this wording.

I said:

This is how the Prophet put it:

“The servants draw near to Allah through nothing like that which came forth from Him.”

He meant the Quran. Khabbāb ibn al-Aratt said:

“You there, draw near to Allah as best you can, for nothing through which one draws near to Him is dearer to Him than that which came forth from Him.”

Abū Bakr al-Siddīq said, upon reading the ‘Quran’ of Musaylimah the Liar:

“This speech did not come from an ill”—meaning a Lord.

The creed also states:

“Faith in Him includes believing that the Quran is the speech of Allah, sent down and uncreated; that from Him it originated, and to Him it returns; that Allah truly spoke it; and that this Quran, which Allah sent down to Muhammad, is truly the speech of Allah, not the speech of anyone else. It is not permissible to state without qualification that it is a reproduction of Allah’s speech or an expression of it. Rather, when people recite it or write it in copies of the Quran, it does not thereby cease to be the speech of Allah. For speech is truly attributed to the one who originally uttered it, not to the one who conveys and relays it.”

One of them took exception to affirming that it is truly the speech of Allah, despite having conceded that Allah Most High truly spoke it.