the scriptures of earlier peoples. Allah, Exalted is He, says:

“Everything they did is in the written records.”

And He, Exalted is He, says:

“Indeed, it is in the scriptures of earlier peoples.”

Deeds being recorded in the written records, and the Quran being recorded in the scriptures of earlier peoples, are like the Messenger being found written of in the Torah and the Gospel that are with them. For this reason, He, Glorified is He, qualified this with the word zubur (“written records”). Books are zubur: one says zabartu al-kitāb (“I wrote the book”), and zabūr means mazbūr, that is, “written.” The Quran itself is not with the Children of Israel; rather, mention of it is, just as Muhammad himself is not with them, but mention of him is. Thus, the Messenger being recorded in their books is like the Quran being recorded in their books. This differs from the Quran being recorded in the Preserved Tablet and in written copies, for it is the Quran itself that is recorded in these. Whoever equates the two is plainly astray. This has been discussed at length in its proper place.

(The point here is that when existing things themselves and their attributes move from one place to another, they come to reside in that second place. Knowledge of them and accounts of them, however, are received by a second person from the first while remaining with the first, although what the second possesses is a counterpart and likeness of what the first possesses. Yet because the object of both instances of knowledge is one and the same in itself, the oneness of that object entails the oneness of what corresponds to it and points to it. People have no interest in the multiplicity of what corresponds to it, as is the case with a name and the one named.

For even if several people mention a person’s name, and several people call him by it, people still say that it is one name for one person. Thus, when the caller to prayer says:

“I bear witness that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah