and “We relate to you the finest discourse.”

The word kalām (“speech”) may denote the act expressed by kallamahu taklīman (“he spoke to him”), or it may denote the utterance itself. An utterance involves an act on the speaker’s part, which is what the verbal noun denotes, and the utterance arises from that act. Thus, an utterance is sometimes regarded as a kind of action, because it results from an activity, and sometimes as a separate category alongside action, as when one says, “speech and action.” The same distinction may apply to qasas (“narrative”), bayān (“explanation”), hadīth (“discourse”), khabar (“report”), and similar words.

When qasas and similar words are intended as verbal nouns denoting the act, that act necessarily entails an utterance, which follows from it. When they denote the speech or utterance itself, this necessarily entails an act and follows from that act.

Verbal nouns formed according to the regular patterns of their verbs denote the act, as in kallamtuhu taklīman (“I spoke to him”) and akhbartuhu ikhbāran (“I informed him”). By contrast, forms that do not follow the regular patterns of their verbs—such as kalām (“speech”), khabar (“report”), and the like—denote the utterance when used without qualification. The same may be said of qasas, since the regular verbal noun of its verb is qass, just as one says ‘addahu ‘addan (“he counted it”), maddahu maddan (“he extended it”), and likewise qassahu qassan (“he recounted it”).

Qasas, however, is not the regular verbal-noun form of a verb whose second and third root consonants are identical. The only evidence they have cited for its being a verbal noun is His statement:

“So they retraced their footsteps.”

Yet this does not establish that it is a verbal noun. Rather, it may be an action noun used in place of the verbal noun, as in His statement:

“And Allah has caused you to grow as a growth from the earth.”

Even if qasas is taken to be the verbal noun of qassa al-athar (“he followed the tracks”), it does not follow that it is the verbal noun of qassa al-hadīth (“he recounted the discourse”). For a discourse is a report and tidings; thus, qasas is like khabar (“report”), naba’ (“tidings”), and kalām (“speech”).