whether it refers to those who believed in some of it and disbelieved in some, or to those who slandered it, saying, “It is magic, poetry,” and the like. Rather, whoever denies the superiority of “Say: He is Allah, One” over “May the hands of Abū Lahab perish” is more deserving of being counted among those who divided it into portions—if the verse has any bearing on this question.

For whoever believes in the descriptions Allah has given of His speech acknowledges that all of it is Allah’s speech and affirms it in its entirety, without disbelieving in a single letter of it. He knows that Allah’s speech is superior to all other speech, that the best speech is Allah’s speech, and that none speaks better or more truthfully than Allah. He also acknowledges what Allah and His Messenger have related concerning the excellence of particular parts of His speech: the Opening of the Book, the Verse of the Throne, “Say: He is Allah, One,” and the like; indeed, also the special excellence of Yā Sīn, “Blessed is He,” and the last two verses of the surah “The Cow”; and likewise the excellence of “The Cow,” “The Family of ‘Imrān,” and other surahs and verses whose excellence is expressly affirmed in the scriptural texts. He acknowledges that it is Allah’s speech and that none of it—neither its meanings nor its letters—is the speech of anyone else.

Such a person is further removed from dividing it into portions than someone who does not believe in the excellence by which Allah has made some of it superior to the rest, but believes only in its excellence on account of the One who speaks it, without believing in its excellence on account of its subject matter. In reality, the latter believes in it in one respect but not in another.

Likewise, whoever says that it is a single meaning, and that Allah did not speak the Arabic Quran, but that it is created—Allah having created it in the air, or Gabriel or Muhammad having brought it into being—then such a person