falsehood. For it has been said that most disagreements among rational people arise from the use of the same terms for different meanings. Much of people’s disagreement on this subject stems from ambiguous expressions: one person understands an expression in a sense he affirms, while another understands it in a sense he denies. Those who deny combine truth with falsehood, and those who affirm likewise combine truth with falsehood.

As for his words:

“Or is that which subsists in us an expression of Allah’s speech or a hikāya (reproduction or narration) of it, so that calling it Allah’s speech is figurative?”

The answer is:

Giving expression to hidden speech refers to the case where someone has a meaning within himself which another person then expresses, just as someone who understands the intent of a person unable to speak expresses what is within him. Those who said, “The Quran is an expression of Allah’s speech,” intended this meaning. This is false. Rather, Allah spoke the Arabic Quran, and Gabriel conveyed it from Him.

As for “hikāya,” it can mean something that resembles another thing, as when one says, “This person imitates so-and-so,” if he produces words or deeds like his. This is impossible in the case of the Quran, for Allah Most High says:

“Say, ‘If mankind and the jinn gathered together to produce the like of this Quran, they could not produce its like’”—to the end of the verse.

The term may also be used to say that someone related another person’s words, meaning that he conveyed and transmitted them from him. Thus, hadith reports contain the wording, “The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, relating from his Lord…” It is also said, “The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, narrated from his Lord and related from his Lord.”

Therefore, if it is said that he related from Allah, meaning that he conveyed from Allah, this is correct.