The majority of people replied to them:

“This view contradicts both the clear dictates of reason and sound transmitted revelation. We know as a matter of necessity that the meaning of the Throne Verse is not the meaning of the Verse of Debt, and that the meaning of:

‘Say: He is Allah, One’

is not the meaning of:

‘May the hands of Abū Lahab perish.’

People have translated the Torah into Arabic and found therein meanings unlike those in the Quran. We know with certainty that the meanings Allah conveyed in the Quran concerning the accounts of Badr, Uhud, the Trench, and similar events were not revealed by Allah to Moses son of Imrān, just as He did not reveal to Muhammad the prohibition of the Sabbath or the command to fight the worshippers of the calf. How, then, can all of Allah’s speech be a single meaning (1)?!

We likewise know as a matter of necessity that speech—both its meanings and its letters—is divided into report and performative utterance. Performative utterance includes requests, and requests are divided into commands and prohibitions. The essential nature of a request differs from that of a report. How, then, could these fail to be divisions and kinds of speech, with speech instead merely being described by all of them?!

(* Moreover, Allah Most High states that [when] (2) Moses came to the tree, He called him. Thus, He called him at that time; He did not call him from all eternity. Likewise, He said:

‘We indeed created you, then fashioned you, and then said to the angels, *) (3) “Prostrate yourselves before Adam.”’). [Surah al-A‘rāf: 11].

He also said:

‘The likeness of Jesus before Allah is that of Adam. He created him from dust, then said to him, “Be!” and he was.’

[Surah Āl ‘Imrān: 59].

He also said:

‘And when your Lord said to the angels’

[Surah al-Baqara: 30], and in many other passages of the