the exception is understood as disjunctive, “speaking” has the same meaning in both verses. If it is understood as connected, “speaking” is like that mentioned in Sūrat al-Shūrā: speaking in its general sense.

It has become clear that He spoke to Moses in a specific, full sense, as indicated by His words:

“Among them were those to whom Allah spoke.”

This is understood alongside the knowledge that He revealed to all of them and spoke to them in the general sense. It is also established by His distinguishing His speaking from His revelation to the prophets; by the verbal noun emphasizing His speaking; by His making speaking from behind a veil a category distinct from His revelation; and by the reports transmitted through numerous independent channels from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and his Companions concerning His speaking specifically to Moses, directly from Him to Moses. It is established that He spoke to him with a voice that Moses heard, as related in reports from the early generations of the Muslim community and its leading scholars, in accordance with what the Book and the Sunnah indicate.

Here, “the third group,” the Kullābiyyah, erred. They believed that He merely revealed to Moses, peace be upon him, a meaning without sound. They disagreed over whether it could be heard. Some said that Moses heard that meaning through a subtle faculty He created within him. They maintained that hearing, sight, smell, taste, and touch are attributes that can have anything that exists as their object, as al-Ashʿarī and a group of others held.

Others said that Moses did not hear Allah’s speech, since, in their view, it is a meaning, and a meaning cannot be heard. This was the position of al-Qādī Abū Bakr and a group of others.

What they have affirmed falls within the general category of revelation which Allah, Mighty and Majestic, distinguished