Second: It may be said: Grant that it is conceivable. What is the evidence for its existence? And what is the evidence that it has no beginning?
Third: It may be asked: When you say, “Sound and letters express it,” do you mean the sounds heard from reciters or the letters present in recitation and written copies of the Quran, or do you mean letters and sounds other than these?
If you mean the first, this is false for several reasons:
First: Anyone proficient in recitation would express what is within Allah without Allah having expressed what is within Himself. The created being would thus be more capable than the Creator.
Second: Many reciters—or most of them—do not understand most of the meanings of the Quran. Expressing what is within oneself presupposes knowing it. How, then, can someone who does not understand all the meanings of the Quran—the speech of Allah—express those meanings?
Third: People understand the meanings of the Quran only through its words signifying those meanings. When they hear its words and reflect upon it, the wording guides them to the meanings. Someone who infers from the wording the meaning intended by the speaker cannot himself be the one expressing that meaning in those words, for someone who expresses a meaning in words first knows the meaning