called out in heaven, he said, “Allah loves so-and-so, so love him.” And when Allah calls Gabriel, He says, “O Gabriel, I love so-and-so.”

For this reason, when the angels called out to Zechariah, Allah Most High said:

“The angels called out to him while he stood praying in the sanctuary: ‘Allah gives you glad tidings of John.’”

[Surah Āl ‘Imrān: 39]

And He said:

“And when the angels said, ‘O Mary, Allah has chosen you, purified you, and chosen you above all the women of the worlds.’”

[Surah Āl ‘Imrān: 42]

It is never permissible for any created being to say, “Indeed, I am Allah, Lord of the worlds,” or to say, “Who will call upon Me so that I may answer him? Who will ask Me so that I may give him? Who will seek My forgiveness so that I may forgive him?”

When Allah Most High creates an attribute in a locus, that locus is characterized by it. Thus, if He creates knowledge, power, life, motion, color, hearing, or sight in a locus, that locus is itself the one that knows by means of it, is powerful, moves, lives, is colored, hears, or sees. The Lord is not characterized by what He creates in His creatures; rather, He is characterized by His attributes that subsist in Him. Indeed, anything described can be described only by what subsists in it, not by what subsists in something else and does not subsist in it.

If the call had been created in the tree, the tree itself would have been the one saying, “Indeed, I am Allah.” And if what the Lord (1) creates within something other than Himself is speech belonging to Him, and He has no speech except what He creates, it would necessarily follow that His causing human limbs to speak on the Day of Resurrection is His speech; that the pebbles’ glorification is His speech; and that the stone’s greeting to the Messenger is His speech. Indeed, it would necessarily follow that every instance of speech in existence is His speech, for it is established that He is the Creator of all things.