no one can produce the like of the Quran, as Allah Most High says:
“Say, ‘If mankind and the jinn gathered together to produce the like of this Quran, they could not produce its like, even if they supported one another.’”
Thus, even if mankind and the jinn gathered together, they could not produce the like of this Quran, although every reciter is able to recite it and convey it. It is therefore clear that what he recites is the Quran itself, not something like the Quran.
As for the letters found in the Quran, when their counterparts occur in someone else’s speech, the latter are not the very same letters, but their counterparts. When Allah speaks a name—such as Adam, Noah, or Abraham—and those letters and names which Allah has spoken are uttered, then, if they are recited as part of His speech, His speech has been conveyed. But when a person composes speech of his own, the letters and names that Allah spoke are not the very same as those spoken by the servant, such that one could say that these names and letters occurring in the speech of His servants are uncreated.
Some who maintain that the letters and names occurring in the speech of His servants are uncreated have claimed that only their arrangement and composition are created, not the individual elements. Yet whoever says this must also hold that their arrangement and composition are uncreated whenever their counterpart occurs in the Quran, as in His words:
“O John, take the Book.”
This would apply even if the speaker meant a person named John and a book before him. (If it is said, “This John and the book before him are not the John and the Book mentioned in the Quran, even though the wording is alike,” the reply is: “Likewise,