Allah and His Messenger, by presenting evidence that establishes this—not by citing views that are accepted or rejected without evidence, or that are intended to champion anyone other than Allah and the Messenger. Rather, one must seek to understand what the Messenger brought and follow it, relying on evidence that demonstrates what Allah and His Messenger have explained.

This also applies to the statements of the early generations and the imams of the Sunnah concerning the definition of faith. Sometimes they say, “It is speech and action.” Sometimes they say, “It is speech, action, and intention.” Sometimes they say, “Speech, action, intention, and adherence to the Sunnah.” And sometimes they say, “Speech of the tongue, belief in the heart, and action of the limbs.” All of these are correct.

When they say “speech and action,” speech includes the speech of both the heart and the tongue. This is what is understood by the terms “saying,” “speech,” and similar expressions when used without qualification. There are four views concerning what “speech” and “saying” denote when used without qualification. The position of the early generations, the jurists, and the majority is that these terms encompass both verbal expression and meaning, just as the term “human being” encompasses both soul and body.

Another view holds that what the term denotes is verbal expression alone: meaning is not part of what it denotes, but is instead what that verbal expression signifies. This is the view of many speculative theologians among the Muʿtazilah and others, and of a group of those who identify with the Sunnah. It is also the view of the grammarians, because their discipline concerns verbal expressions.

Another view holds that what the term denotes is meaning alone, and that applying “speech” to verbal expression is figurative, because the expression signifies that meaning. This is the view of Ibn Kullāb and his followers.

Another view holds that it is a term shared by verbal expression and meaning. This is the view of some later Kullābīs. They also have a third view, reported from Abū al-Hasan: that its application to Allah’s speech is figurative, whereas its application to human speech is literal, because the letters spoken by human beings