and other leading scholars of guidance. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

“Adorn the Quran with your voices.”

As for the recited text itself—the letters and words of the Quran—it is uncreated. A servant merely recites Allah’s speech with his own voice. Likewise, when he says, “The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said, ‘Actions are judged only by intentions,’” these words, in both wording and meaning, are the speech of Allah’s Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him; the person has merely conveyed them through his movements and voice. Similarly, the Quran, in both wording and meaning, is the speech of Allah Most High. The creature merely conveys and recites it in his own voice.

No discerning person can fail to recognize the distinction between the recited text itself—before created beings utter it and after they utter it—and the servant’s own acts and deeds in reciting the Quran. Some supporters and opponents alike erred by treating these two distinct matters as one. They sought to prove that the Quran’s letters themselves originated in time by citing evidence that the actions of servants, and what arises from those actions, originate in time. This is among the gravest errors. Neither rational nor scriptural arguments provide evidence that the Quran’s letters themselves originated in time, except arguments of the same kind as those used to argue that its meanings originated in time. The response to the one set of arguments is like the response to the other, for anyone who seeks Allah’s guidance and is guided by Him.

As for the Quranic verses and hadiths concerning the divine attributes which they mentioned, the way of the early generations of this community—the Companions, the Successors, and all the other imams followed as authorities—is to affirm them and accept them as transmitted. It was stated by