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Thus, when these people—who declared the doctrine of the “Lafziyyah” erroneous yet added much evil to it—say that “reading” is distinct from what is read, “recitation” from what is recited, and “writing” from what is written, they mean by reading only the readers’ voices, and by “writing” the writers’ ink. They mean that these are distinct from the meaning subsisting in His essence, which is Allah’s speech, and are merely an indication of it and an expression of it. In their view, there is nothing but reading and what is read. Thus, nothing remains except sound, ink, and a meaning subsisting in His essence; there is no Quran beyond these.

They have excluded the letters of Allah’s speech that He spoke, and the reality of the Quran’s meanings in Allah Himself, exalted is He. They have also excluded the Quran’s meanings in the souls of its readers and listeners. For there is no doubt that the Quran we read contains letters and meanings—letters that are spoken and written. If, in their view, there is nothing but the servant’s voice and the ink in the written copy of the Quran, where are the meanings? And where are the letters of the Quran that Allah sent down, even if they regard them as created?

How can it be conceived that all the Books Allah Most High sent down have only a single meaning, which is a command, a prohibition, a promise, and a threat