all alike in that Allah spoke it, some of it conveys what Allah says about Himself, some what He says about His creation, and some His commands to them. In some passages He commands them to believe and forbids them to associate partners with Him; in others He commands them to record debts in writing and forbids them to engage in usury.
It is well known that what He says about Himself, such as:
“Say, ‘He is Allah, the One,’”
is greater than what He says about His creation, such as:
“May the hands of Abū Lahab perish.”
Likewise, passages in which He commands faith and forbids associating partners with Him are greater than those in which He commands debts to be recorded in writing and forbids usury.
Similarly, a person’s speech shares a common source with respect to the speaker: it is the speech of one speaker. Yet it varies in excellence according to its subject matter. A person’s speech in which he remembers his Lord, enjoins right, and forbids wrong is better than his speech in which he mentions His creation and commands something permissible or forbidden. Those who held the first view erred because they considered only one aspect of speech—the speaker—and disregarded the other—its subject matter. Speech is related to both, and these relationships give rise to differences or equality in excellence.
They said: Whoever attributes differences in excellence merely to greater or lesser reward, without the speech itself being superior, is like someone who considers two deeds equal, yet regards the reward for one as many times that of the other, even though neither deed has any distinguishing merit in itself. Rather, they are like two dirhams given in charity by the same man at the same time and in a place