the reward of those most perfect in faith—in addition to the reward for messengership and prophethood—for he shared the believers’ faith and attained its highest degrees, while being distinguished from them by messengership and prophethood.

His words, “sent down to him from his Lord,” imply that it is His speech, which He Himself spoke, and that it came down from Him, not from anyone else. As the Most High says:

“Say: The Holy Spirit has brought it down from your Lord.”

And He says:

“A revelation from the Lord of all worlds.”

This is one of the arguments the people of the Sunnah advanced against the Mu'tazilah, who say that Allah did not speak the Quran. They argued: “Had it been the speech of anyone other than Allah, it would have been sent down from that locus, not from Allah, for the Quran is an attribute that does not subsist independently. This differs from His words:

‘And He has subjected to you whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on earth—all from Him.’

Those things are independently existing entities, so they are from Him in the sense that He created them. Speech, however, is an attribute subsisting in the speaker. Since it is from Him, it is His speech, for it is impossible for it to be from Him without His having spoken it.”

Then the Most High testified that the believers believed in what their Messenger believed in. He then testified that all of them believed in Allah, His angels, His Books, and His messengers. This testimony thus encompasses their belief in the five foundations of faith, without which no one can be a believer: belief in Allah, His angels, His Books, His messengers, and the Last Day. The Most High has mentioned these five foundations at the beginning of the surah and in its middle