he means that the speech itself is His speech, not anyone else’s, in both cases—as established earlier—then that is so. It is known that hearing it from Allah is not the same as hearing it from His creation. This distinguishes the two situations, even though the speech is one and the same. If this distinction holds for a created being’s speech, whether heard directly from him or conveyed on his behalf, it holds all the more for Allah’s speech. Nothing is like Allah in His Essence, His attributes or His acts. His speaking it and its being heard cannot have any known counterpart or likeness, nor can this be measured against the Prophet’s speaking and people’s hearing his speech—may Allah bless him and grant him peace. For the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—is a human being whose attributes we can know, whereas the Lord Most High has no likeness. He is far more removed from resembling created beings than the greatest created being is from resembling the lowliest.

As for the questioner’s words:

“When we recite it and it subsists in us, is it called Allah’s speech and His attribute, or is it called Allah’s speech but not His attribute? Or does this require a distinction that must be explained?”

The answer is:

“It is Allah’s speech and His attribute, heard from the one conveying it from Him, not from Him Himself.”

Affirmation or denial without this distinction misleadingly suggests either that it is Allah’s speech heard from Him, or that it is not Allah’s speech but rather the speech of the one conveying it from Him. Both statements are errors found in the words of two groups of people. One group regarded this as the speech of the one conveying it from Him, not the speech of