in different kinds of speech. Indeed, even within a single utterance, the meanings present in his heart and the words uttered by his tongue may differ in excellence. When making a request, he may desire, love, and seek one of two things more intensely than the other; his voice may be stronger, his wording more eloquent, and his manner of requesting more forceful and effective. Thus, when the same admonition—or even the same verse—is heard from two different people, the difference in excellence may be unmistakable to any rational person. This is too evident and well known to require an example.

Likewise, when conveying information, the recognition, knowledge, conception of what is known, and awareness of it within his heart, together with the excellence of his expression in words and voice, may far surpass what is present in his heart and on his tongue when he speaks about something else. This briefly indicates the position of those who hold that some of Allah’s speech is superior to other parts, in accordance with what the Book, the Sunnah, and the statements of the early generations and the imams indicate.

The second group maintains that no part of Allah’s speech is superior to another. They offer two interpretations of the texts that mention such superiority. The first is that differences in excellence concern only what His speech relates to: for example, some of it may be more beneficial to people than other parts because it brings greater reward, or because acting upon it is easier while the reward remains the same. They interpret His words:

“We bring one better than it”

to mean: We bring one that is better for you, not that it is intrinsically better than the other. This is the position of a group of Quran commentators, including Muhammad ibn Jarīr al-Tabarī, who said:

“We bring a ruling better for you than the ruling of the abrogated verse: either in this life, because it is less burdensome