Another group says:

“Rather, it is beginningless and subsists eternally in the divine essence, without beginning or end. Allah speaks neither by His power nor by His will. His call to Moses has likewise been eternal from all eternity, as have His words: ‘O Abraham! O Moses! O Jesus!’”

They then split into two camps. One camp recognized that whatever is beginningless and has always existed cannot consist of letters, or of letters and sounds. Letters occur successively: b comes before s, and a sound does not endure; rather, it occurs one part after another, like motion. It is therefore impossible for the sound Moses heard to be beginningless—having always existed and continuing forever. They thus said:

“His speech is a single meaning subsisting in His essence. It is the command encompassing everything commanded, the prohibition of everything prohibited, and the report of everything He has reported. If expressed in Arabic, it is the Quran; if expressed in Hebrew (1), it is the Torah; and if expressed in Syriac (2), it is the Gospel. That meaning is a command encompassing everything He has commanded, a prohibition of everything He has forbidden, and a report of everything He has reported. Its being a command, a prohibition, and a report are relational attributes, just as we say: ‘Zayd is a father, a paternal uncle, and a maternal uncle.’ These do not constitute different kinds of Zayd, nor is speech divided into one or another of these categories.”

They said:

“Allah did not speak the Arabic Quran, the Hebrew Torah (3), or the Syriac Gospel. Neither Moses nor anyone else heard a sound from Him with his own ears. Rather, Allah created the Arabic Quran in something other than Himself, or Gabriel or Muhammad brought it into being, so that it might convey what was intended to be understood from that single meaning (4).”