that meaning as a single meaning that is command, prohibition, statement, and inquiry. You also hold that when this meaning is expressed in Arabic, it is the Quran; when expressed in Hebrew, it is the Torah; and when expressed in Syriac, it is the Gospel. The falsity of this is self-evident from both reason and religion: if we translate the Torah into Arabic, its meaning does not become that of the Quran; and if we translate the Quran into Hebrew, its meaning does not become that of the Torah.

(Moreover, the meaning of the Verse of the Throne is not the meaning of the Verse of Debt. They merely share the designation of speech and of Allah’s speech, just as individual entities share the designation of their kind. This passage of speech, that passage, and another passage all share in being Allah’s speech, just as individuals share membership in their respective kinds. Likewise, a human being, this human being, and that human being share the designation “human being,” yet no particular individual exists in external reality who is all three. Similarly, no single speech exists in external reality that constitutes the meaning of the Torah, the Gospel, and the Quran, and also the meaning of the Verse of Debt and the Verse of the Throne.

Anyone who disputes this contradicts plain reason in the same way as someone who says:

“The voices and actions of human beings are eternal and beginningless.”

Throw the assertions of both innovations back at those who make them, and adhere to the straight path: the path of those whom Allah has blessed—the prophets, the steadfastly truthful, the martyrs, and the righteous.