then conveys it to others in words. With the Quran, people are in precisely the opposite position; they therefore cannot be the ones expressing those meanings through it.
Fourth: Each of them knows that he learned the Arabic Quran from someone else, and that his role is only to memorize, convey, and recite it. Indeed, he knows that if he memorizes the speeches of orators and the poetry of poets, he is not thereby the one expressing what is within them through those words. Rather, the words remain theirs; he has merely memorized, recited, and conveyed them. How much more so with the speech of the Lord of all worlds!
Fifth: Everyone knows with immediate certainty that the Arabic Quran itself existed before any of the reciters came into being, and that people received it only from Muhammad—may Allah’s blessings and abundant peace be upon him, his family, and his Companions. In short, the proofs that this view is false are too numerous to enumerate.
If you say: “Rather, the letters and sounds used to express the meanings Allah intended are letters and sounds that existed before the reciters came into being; each reciter, however, memorized that Arabic arrangement of words which existed before him,” you are told: “Then there were letters and sounds other than these sounds heard from reciters and other than the ink written in copies of the Quran, and this is