In matters of speech, action nouns encompass the utterance itself and indicate the speaker’s act by inclusion and necessary implication. Thus, saying kalām (“speech”), khabar (“report”), hadīth (“discourse”), naba’ (“tidings”), and qasas (“narrative”) is not like saying taklīm (“speaking to someone”), inbā’ (“giving tidings”), ikhbār (“informing”), and tahdīth (“relating”). Hence it is said to be accusative as a direct object. An action noun can also be accusative in the role of a verbal noun, as in His statement:

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

When someone says, “I spoke good words to him” (kallamtuhu kalāman hasanan), “I related a pleasant account to him” (haddathtuhu hadīthan tayyiban), “I conveyed glad news to him” (akhbartuhu akhbāran sārratan), “I recounted true stories to him” (qasastu ‘alayhi qisasan sādiqatan), and similar expressions, these nouns are accusative as direct objects. This is unlike saying kallamtuhu taklīman (“I spoke to him”) or anba’tuhu inbā’an (“I informed him”).

It is therefore clear that His words “the best of stories” are accusative as a direct object. Everything Allah recounts is the best of stories. However, since such an expression encompasses both the meaning of the verbal noun and that of the direct object, its accusative case may be understood in both senses, for they necessarily entail one another. You say, “I uttered good words” (qultu qawlan hasanan), and “I made him hear an utterance” (asma‘tuhu qawlan). He did not hear the act denoted by the verbal noun; rather, he heard the sound. You also say, qāla, yaqūlu, qawlan (“he said; he says; saying”), thus treating qawl as a verbal noun. Yet the sound itself is not what the verbal noun denotes. What it denotes is the act that necessarily entails the sound, though the two are inseparable.

For this reason, the people of the Sunnah and hadith disagreed concerning recitation and the Quran: is recitation the Quran being recited, or not? Ibn Qutaybah and others noted a point relevant to this meaning and discussed it. The confusion arises because what is recited is the Quran itself, which is speech. “Recitation” may refer to this, or it may refer to the reciter’s actual movement