Then, when we recite the Quran, we recite it only in our created voices, which do not resemble the Lord’s voice. The Quran we recite is Allah’s speech conveyed from Him, not heard directly from Him. We recite it through our movements and voices: the speech is the Creator’s speech, while the voice is the reciter’s voice, as the Book, the Sunnah, and reason indicate. Allah Most High says:

“And if any of the polytheists seeks your protection, grant him protection so that he may hear the words of Allah; then escort him to his place of safety.”

The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“Adorn the Quran with your voices.”

Regarding the Prophet’s saying, “He is not one of us who does not recite the Quran melodiously,” Imam Ahmad said: “He adorns and beautifies it with his voice, as in the saying: ‘Adorn the Quran with your voices.’”

Ahmad thus explicitly affirmed what the Book and the Sunnah teach: we recite the Quran in our own voices, and the Quran is entirely Allah’s speech, both its wording and its meaning. Gabriel heard it from Allah and conveyed it to Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. Muhammad heard it from him and conveyed it to humankind, who convey it to one another and hear it from one another.

It is well known that when people hear the words of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, or anyone else, and convey those words from him—as he said, “May Allah grant radiance to a person who hears a hadith from us and conveys it just as he heard it”—they have heard the wording from the Messenger in his own voice, with the letters he uttered, and have conveyed his wording in their own voices. The distinction between narrating a hadith by meaning and narrating it verbatim is well known. The wording conveyed is the Messenger’s wording, and it is the Messenger’s speech. For if the voice of