and His speech in which He speaks about Himself. The latter is Allah’s speech in which He speaks about some of His creation, gives an account of them, and describes their condition. In this respect, the two differ in excellence according to the relative excellence of the meanings intended by each.

Do you not see that a created being utters words that are all his own speech, yet his words mentioning his Lord are greater than his words mentioning some created things, although all are his speech? Thus, the fact that two utterances share the same relationship to their speaker does not preclude their differing in excellence with respect to their subject matter, whether both relationships, or either one of them, entail superiority or not.

Thus, some of the speech of the prophets—and then of scholars, orators, and poets—is superior to other parts, even when the speaker is the same. The same applies to the speech of angels and jinn. Whether ‘speech’ means the meanings alone, the words alone, both together, or each separately, there is no doubt that the words and meanings expressed by a single speaker differ in excellence. This shows that the mere fact that two utterances have the same speaker does not require them to be alike in every other respect.

That speech differs in excellence according to its subject matter, whether declarative or non-declarative, is known through both innate human nature and revealed law. A statement containing praise of Allah and extolling Him by His most beautiful names is not like a statement mentioning Abū Lahab, Pharaoh, and Iblīs, even though the latter is great and revered speech spoken by Allah. Nor is the command to affirm Allah’s oneness, to believe in Allah and His Messenger, and to uphold other fundamentals of religion enjoined