The sixth answer is as follows:

Muslims agree that the Quran is Allah’s speech. If His speech consists only of meaning, while the Arabic wording that conveys those meanings is not His speech, then that wording must be something created by Allah in something other than Himself. It would therefore be the speech of that other entity, because, as explained earlier, speech created in a particular locus is the speech of that entity. Thus, the Arabic speech would not be Allah’s speech, but the speech of another. Yet it is known beyond doubt as part of the Muslim faith that Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, informed his ummah that the Arabic speech he conveyed from Allah was Allah’s speech, not the speech of another. If the Arabic wording were created, it would not be Allah’s speech, and what the ummah received from its Prophet would therefore be false.

This is one of the strongest arguments the Sunnis advance against the Jahmiyyah to establish that the Quran is not created. They argued:

“If Allah had created it in something other than Himself, it would have been an attribute of that other entity, just like all other created attributes: when Allah creates them in a particular locus, they are attributes of that locus.”

This very argument establishes that the Arabic Quran is Allah’s speech, not the speech of another. For if it were created in a particular locus, the Arabic speech would be the speech of the locus in which it was created. Yet it is known beyond doubt as part of the religion of Islam that the Arabic speech is Allah’s speech, not the speech of another.

This refutes the claim made by some later scholars that the term “speech” applies to wording and meaning in two distinct senses. They may be answered as follows:

“If each is literally called speech, neither can be created. For if either were created, it would be the speech of the locus in which it was created.”