by Himself, and that nothing He chooses and has power to do subsists in Him. Rather, you made Him (1) like an inanimate object in which there is no activity (2) (—an object with neither agency nor action; whereas they made Him like an inanimate object to which something necessarily and inextricably adheres that it cannot repel from itself, and which has no power to act—) (3). Thus, you agreed with them in part of their false doctrine.

We, however, affirmed what accords with reason and revelation: the perfection of His power and will, and that He is able to act by Himself [and to speak by Himself] (4) however He wills. We also affirmed that He has always been described by the attributes of perfection, speaking whenever He wills (5).

We therefore do not say that His speech is created and separate from Him, for the true import of this position is that He does not speak. Nor do we say that His speech is one single thing (6)—command, prohibition, and report alike (and that the Torah and the Gospel have one and the same meaning, and that command and prohibition are attributes of one and the same thing) (7)—for this flies in the face of reason (8).

Nor do we say that it consists of discrete (9), mutually opposed, eternal sounds, for sounds do not endure for two moments. Moreover, if we affirmed this position and the one before it, it would necessarily follow that Allah’s speaking