Most High—especially since all the Jahmiyyah hold that Allah creates people’s actions, and are extreme proponents of determinism. The Mu‘tazilah agree with them in denying the divine attributes and declaring the Quran created, but differ from them concerning divine decree, religious designations, and rulings. If Allah creates everything other than Himself, their position necessarily entails that all speech is His speech, because He created it. Hence Ibn Arabī al-Tā’ī—an extremist among these Jahmiyyah who professed the oneness of existence—said:

All speech in existence is His speech;
To us, its prose and verse are all the same.

For this reason, Sulaymān ibn Dāwūd al-Hāshimī—a peer of Ahmad ibn Hanbal, concerning whom al-Shāfi‘ī said, “I have never seen anyone more intelligent than these two men: Ahmad ibn Hanbal and Sulaymān ibn Dāwūd al-Hāshimī”—said:

“Whoever says that ‘Indeed, I am Allah; there is no deity except Me’ is created is a disbeliever. If the Quran were created, as they claim, why should Pharaoh be more deserving of remaining in the Fire forever for saying, ‘I am your most exalted lord,’ when they claim that this is created?”

The meaning is that Pharaoh’s statement, “I am your most exalted lord,” was speech subsisting in Pharaoh himself. If His statement, “Indeed, I am Allah; there is no deity except Me,” were speech that He created in the tree, then the tree would be the one saying it, just as Pharaoh was the one who spoke his words. In that case, making the tree a deity would be greater disbelief than making Pharaoh a deity.