Since speech occurs only through movement and action that give rise to letters and meanings, it sometimes falls within the terms “action” and “deed,” when considered as movement and action, and sometimes falls outside them, when considered as letters and meanings. Thus, in the Quran and Sunnah, speech is sometimes treated as a kind of action, as in the Most High’s words:

“There is no private conversation among three but He is their fourth, nor among five but He is their sixth, nor fewer than that nor more but He is with them wherever they may be. Then, on the Day of Resurrection, He will inform them of what they did.”

At other times, it is treated as a category distinct from action, as in the Most High’s words:

“To Him ascends good speech, and righteous deeds raise it.”

For this reason, scholars disagreed over whether someone who swears not to perform any action in a particular place breaks his oath by speaking there, when neither his intention nor the circumstances of the oath clarify its scope. There are two views on this within the school of Imam Ahmad and elsewhere; both are reported from Ahmad.

For this reason, Abū Muhammad ibn Qutayba stated, in the book he wrote to explain “utterance,” that recitation is both Quran and action, neither of which can be separated from the other. Whoever says that it is Quran speaks truthfully, and whoever swears that it is an action is truthful in his oath. Whoever declared without qualification that recitation is created was mistaken, as was whoever claimed that it is uncreated. He charged both parties with limited knowledge and inadequate understanding, for the subtlety of this issue had prevented either party from grasping it. One party found that recitation is called Quran and therefore denied that it is created; the other found that recitation is an action for which the reciter is rewarded and therefore affirmed that it comes into being.