this position amounts to denying His speech and His speaking. This is the true substance of Pharaoh’s position, for he denied the Creator and His speaking to Moses. Thus, the most thoroughgoing exponent of these views ultimately came to venerate Pharaoh, ally himself with him, and affirm his declaration:

“I am your lord, the Most High.”

Indeed, he went so far as to exalt him above Moses and belittle Allah’s speaking to Moses, as has been explained at length elsewhere.

(Further, one may ask: What do you say about someone’s speech when another person transmits it—as the words of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, the Companions, scholars, poets, and others are transmitted and heard from narrators or those conveying them? Is what is heard from the transmitter, in the transmitter’s voice, the speech of the transmitter or of the person whose words he conveys?

If he says that it is the transmitter’s speech, it necessarily follows that the Quran is the speech of everyone from whom it is heard. The Quran as heard would therefore be the speech of a million reciters, not the speech of Allah Most High. Likewise, the words, “Actions are judged only by intentions,” and similar statements would be the speech of everyone who narrates them, not the speech of the Messenger. In that case, no distinction would be conferred upon the Quran by the statement:

“Indeed, it is the word of a noble messenger.”

For, according to these people, it is the word of every hypocrite who recites it. Both believers and hypocrites recite the Quran, as is related in the two Sahih collections from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, who said:

“The believer who recites the Quran is like a citron: its taste is pleasant and its fragrance is pleasant. The believer who does not recite the Quran is like a date: its taste is pleasant, but it has no fragrance. The hypocrite who recites the Quran is like sweet basil: its fragrance is pleasant, but its taste is bitter. And the hypocrite who does not recite the Quran