and [We sent] messengers whose stories We have told you before, and messengers whose stories We have not told you. And Allah spoke directly to Moses.”

Thus, He distinguished between His revelation to the other prophets and His speaking to Moses, just as He distinguished between these two kinds in His saying:

“It is not for any human being that Allah should speak to him except by revelation or from behind a veil.”

He therefore distinguished between revelation and speaking from behind a veil. If His speaking to Moses had merely been an inspiration He imparted to him, without Moses hearing a voice, there would have been no difference between His revelation to others and His speaking to Moses. Since the Quran distinguishes between the two, and the Ummah unanimously acknowledges what has been widely transmitted in reports from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace—that Moses was singled out for Allah to speak to him—this indicates that what Moses received was not a form of inspiration or something perceived by the heart. Rather, it was speech heard by the ears, and the ears hear only sound.

The fourth answer is that the Quran commentators, the scholars of the Sunnah and transmitted reports, and their followers among the early generations all agree that Allah spoke to Moses with a voice. This is stated in the well-known reports from them preserved in the books transmitting the teachings of the early generations, such as those cited by Ibn Jarīr and others in their commentary on His saying:

“Until, when fear is lifted from their hearts,”

and in their commentary on Allah’s speaking to Moses and other passages. Such reports are also cited by ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ahmad, al-Khallāl, al-Tabarānī, Abū al-Shaykh, and others in their “books on the Sunnah,” and by Imam Ahmad and others in their “books on asceticism and the stories of the prophets.”