an intermediary, whereas the latter is His speaking through an intermediary.

If you say of what someone conveys from another person, “This is a hikāyah (reproduction) of that person’s speech,” such unqualified language is mistaken. For the term hikāyah, when used without qualification, means that someone has produced speech resembling the other person’s speech, as when one says, “This imitates that,” or, “This has imitated that.” Yet one may say, “So-and-so has related these words from so-and-so,” just as one says that he narrated, conveyed, transmitted, or reported them from him. Hence the wording found in hadith: “From the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, in what he narrates from his Lord.” Thus, whatever the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, conveyed from Allah, he related and narrated from Him.

If someone says of a reciter, “He is reproducing Allah’s speech,” or, “He is reproducing the Quran,” this may be understood to mean that he produces speech that imitates Allah’s speech, and this is disbelief. If, however, he means that the reciter conveys and recites it, the meaning is correct. Nevertheless, he should express this in words that do not suggest a false meaning, saying instead, “He reads it, recites it, conveys it, and delivers it.”

For this reason, there is no objection to saying, “He relates the seven Quranic readings, narrates them, and transmits them,” because this is understood only to mean that he conveys them, not that he produces their like.