Our purpose here, however, is to answer the questioner’s questions.

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As for the statement:

“You believe that Moses truly heard Allah’s speech directly from Him, without an intermediary. Yet you say that what you hear is truly Allah’s speech, although you hear it through intermediaries speaking in different voices. What, then, is the difference between the two?”

The answer is: the difference between the two is greater than the distance from the foot to the crown of the head. Every rational person distinguishes between hearing the Prophet’s speech directly from him, without an intermediary—as the Companions heard him—and hearing it through those who conveyed it from him, such as Abū Hurayrah, Abū Saʿīd, Ibn ʿUmar, and Ibn ʿAbbās. Yet each listener has truly heard the Prophet’s speech, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.

Likewise, someone who hears the poetry of Hassān ibn Thābit, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Rawāhah, or another poet directly from its author, and someone who hears it from those who transmit it from him, knows the difference between the two. In both cases, it is Hassān’s poetry, not anyone else’s. When a person learns another’s poetry, he knows that the poet originated its meanings and arranged its letters using the articulated sounds of his own voice, even though the transmitter recites it using his own movements and vocal sounds.