in respect of what is attributed to us, not what is attributed to Allah, then it is impossible to say that the very letter forming part of a name pronounced by people is identical to the letter forming part of an utterance in Allah’s speech, exalted is He. It merely resembles and approximates it: they are the same in type, but not the same individual instance. This is unlike the letters of Allah’s speech—the Quran—for they remain Allah’s speech whatever forms they take. This involves a subtlety and a source of confusion which we have indicated in this response and explained in its proper place.

Whoever says, “The letters are two distinct letters,” means that they are two distinct individual instances; this is true. Whoever says, “The letter is one and the same,” means that its nature as a type is the same in both cases; this too is true. Whoever says that the letters of the alphabet occurring in human speech are uncreated speaks truly with respect to their nature as a type. Whoever says that they are created with respect to their individual instances also speaks truly.

Many parallels to this occur in the affirmations and negations found in the discourse of scholars and the people of the Sunnah: the dispute concerns two different meanings and is merely verbal, arising from different perspectives. One learned person said, “Most disagreements among rational people arise from using the same terms for different meanings.”

Yet the occurrence of such shared usage and ambiguity leads many people astray, just as many people are guided through it. This is the cause of the misguidance of those ignorant people about whom the question was asked. Their argument is that Allah taught Adam all the names and taught him articulate speech. This rests on