do you reflect! It is a revelation from the Lord of the worlds.”

This further shows that He attributed it to the messenger because he conveyed and delivered it, not because he originated and composed it. For He said:

“Indeed, it is a revelation from the Lord of the worlds. The Trustworthy Spirit brought it down.”

Thus He combined His statement, “Indeed, it is the word of a noble messenger,” with His statement, “Indeed, it is a revelation from the Lord of the worlds.” Both pronouns refer to the same thing. Had the messenger originated and composed it, it would not have been a revelation from the Lord of the worlds; rather, it would have been a revelation from the messenger.

As for anyone who takes the pronoun here to refer to something other than the referent of the other pronoun—even though nothing in the wording requires different referents—or who says that this is an expression of Allah’s speech, tell him:

Is what you recite an expression of the expression which, according to your claim, the angelic or human messenger originated? Or is it that very expression itself? If you make this an expression of that expression, then Gabriel’s or the Messenger’s expression could likewise be an expression of Allah’s expression. In that case, the dispute remains merely verbal. For once he says that Muhammad heard all of it from Gabriel, that Gabriel heard all of it from Allah, and that the Muslims heard all of it from the Messenger, he has spoken the truth. After this, his use of the term “expression” is intended to distinguish between the act of conveying and the one whose speech is conveyed, as we shall explain.

But if you say that this is not an expression of that expression, but that very expression itself, then you have made what is heard from the conveyor identical to what is heard from the original speaker