—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—that what he conveys and recites is Allah’s speech, not his own, even though he conveys it through his own actions and voice. As he said:

“Adorn the Quran with your voices.”

He also said:

“Allah listens far more attentively to a man with a beautiful voice reciting the Quran than the owner of a singing girl listens to her.”

People of all nations agree on this. When they hear someone recite a poem such as “Halt, you two, and let us weep” or “Have the poets left,” a “sermon” such as the sermons of ‘Alī and Ziyād, a “letter” such as a letter by ‘Abd al-Hamīd and others like him, rhymed prose from the soothsayers, or a fabricated Quran such as the Quran of Musaylima the Liar, they say: “This is the poetry of Imru’ al-Qays, the speech of ‘Alī, the speech of ‘Abd al-Hamīd, and the Quran of Musaylima; it is his speech.” They do not regard it as the speech of the intermediary who conveys and delivers it, even though he conveys it through his own actions and voice.

When a man composes a poem, a sermon, a letter, or rhymed prose, or speaks in ordinary prose, giving an order or conveying information, they say: “This is so-and-so’s speech and utterance,” even though he learned its individual words from others and was taught them by someone else.

Whoever says that speech belongs to the person from whom its individual words were learned is further removed from reason and religion than someone who says that speech belongs to the person who conveys and delivers it. Rather, speech belongs only to the one to whom it pertains and of whom it is an attribute, who composed and originated it, and who makes its assertions, issues its commands, and pronounces its prohibitions.