who heard it from the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—even though they convey his words just as they heard them. It is understood that they did not reproduce the Prophet’s voice—may Allah bless him and grant him peace. Their voices are neither his voice nor like his voice, although they conveyed his words just as they heard them. Thus, it is all the more appropriate to say of the Quran that Gabriel conveyed it just as he heard it, that the Messenger conveyed it just as he heard it, and that the community conveyed it just as it heard it; that what it conveyed is what it heard; and that it is the speech of Allah, mighty and majestic, in both cases.

This is so even though the Messenger is a human being like other human beings, whereas Allah Most High says:

“There is nothing like Him.”

The difference between the attributes of the Creator and those of created beings is greater than the difference between the lowest and highest created beings. If the Successors’ hearing the Prophet’s speech—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—from the Companions is not like the Companions’ hearing it from the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—then hearing Allah’s speech from Allah is still further removed from resembling any instance of one created being hearing another.

When someone says of what he hears from a person conveying the Messenger’s words, “This is the Messenger’s speech,” or “These words are correct,” or “true,” or “sound,” or “This is the hadith of Allah’s Messenger, conveyed just as he heard it,” or “This is the very speech of the Messenger,” or “his exact words,” he means only the speech itself: that which is present when it is heard from either the transmitter or the one whose words he transmits. He is not referring to anything peculiar to either of them. He is thus referring neither to the transmitter’s voice alone, nor to the voice of the one whose words he transmits alone, nor to the movement of either of them. Rather, there is something that is the same in both cases