as a matter of self-evident knowledge. Some of them opposed these claims on the grounds that the Quran consists of letters and sound. Some believed that the Quran, and speech generally, consists of nothing but letters and sounds, whereas the other group says that speech is nothing but the meaning subsisting within the self.
Both these newly introduced denials contradict the position of the imams, such as Imam Ahmad, and other imams and leading scholars of the various groups. In their usage, speech denotes both letters and meanings, just as “the human being,” endowed with speech, denotes both body and soul. Whoever says that the human being is nothing but this visible physical whole is like someone who says that speech is nothing but articulated sounds. Whoever says that the human being is nothing but a subtle entity beyond this body is like someone who says that speech is nothing but a meaning beyond these letters and sounds. Both positions deny part of the realities designated by these terms and reject the bounds of what Allah has revealed to His Messenger.
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Furthermore, the offshoots of the “negating Lafziyyah,” who say that the letters of the Quran are not part of Allah’s speech, report that their opponents say: “The Quran is nothing but the sounds heard from a servant and the ink written on paper,