For this reason, the early Kullābiyyah did not say that the term “speech” applies to wording and meaning in two distinct senses, because that would invalidate their argument against the Muʿtazilah and commit them to saying that Allah’s speech is created. Rather, they said that “speech” applies figuratively to wording and literally to meaning. Their later followers recognized that this was self-evidently false and that the term “speech” literally includes wording. They therefore assigned it two distinct senses, which committed them to holding that Allah’s speech is created. Thus, they face two unacceptable alternatives: either to say that Allah’s speech is created, or to say that the Arabic Quran is not Allah’s speech. Both positions are known to be false.

The discussion is not about people’s own vocal sounds and movements. Rather, it concerns the Arabic Quran itself, revealed to Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. This becomes clear if we consider the Quran before it was sent down to him and he conveyed it to creation.

If it is said that all of it is Allah’s speech, that He spoke it, and that Gabriel conveyed it from Him to Muhammad—as is known from the religion of the messengers—then this explicitly establishes that there is no distinction between the letters and the meanings: the one is part of Allah’s speech just as the other is.

If, however, it is said that He created in something other than Himself an ordered sequence of letters indicating a meaning subsisting in His own essence, this explicitly declares that those combined letters are not His speech and that He did not speak them in any way.

If it is said that those letters are literally called speech, yet were created in something other than Him, it follows that they are the speech of that other entity, not Allah’s speech. This contradicts what is known from the religion of Islam. If it is said that they are not literally called speech, this contradicts what is necessarily known from language and revealed law.

We do not deny that meaning alone may be called speech, just as wording alone may be called