The Kalām (Speech) of Allāh Ta‘ālā
Jan 22, 2015 9:12:18 GMT
StudentOfTheDeen, Realutionist, and 1 more like this
Post by Zameel on Jan 22, 2015 9:12:18 GMT
Muslims unanimously believe that Allāh speaks and the Qur’ān is the word of Allāh.
However, Muslim theologians have differed over the nature of Allāh’s speech.
In brief, there are three major opinions with respect to the speech of Allāh:
1. The belief of Ibn Taymiyyah and his followers (the contemporary “Salafīs”)
2. The belief of the Mu‘tazilah
3. The belief of Ahlus Sunnah wa l-Jamā‘ah
The following will look at each of these theological positions in turn.
The “Salafī” View
According to the followers of Ibn Taymiyyah, Allāh is a beginningless entity Who possessed the ability to speak in all eternity. However, Allāh only truly speaks within a time-specific instantiation of speech, and each instance of speech is composed of sounds and letters. This time-specific speech emerges directly from the being of Allāh. According to this view, Allāh speaks for some time and remains quiet for some time, and He was like this for all eternity. This view is based on an analogy of Allāh’s speech with the speech of human beings and amounts to comparing Allāh to His creation which is expressly rejected in the Sharī‘ah.
Moreover, it is logically absurd as demonstrated in the following.
According to this view, Allāh, like human beings, is silent (not speaking) but His silence is punctuated by moments of speech. One who holds this position can believe only one of two things: either Allāh had a first instance of speech or He did not have a first instance of speech. The second possibility is absurd as it results in an infinite regress: If one were to say (on this view) that there was no first moment of speech, but there were successive periods of silence and speech unenendingly into the infinite past, this would entail that there would never be a single instance of speech. To understand why, if we were to take a hypothetical instance of speech at a fixed moment in history, and we assert that there was an infinite number of moments of silence and speech before this, that hypothetical instance of speech would not occur because an actual infinite can by definition never be completed. This can be demonstrated by the famous illustration of a man on death row whose executioner awaits the command of his superior to fire the firearm, but his superior must also await a command from his superior, and he from his superior; if this continues ad infinitum, the executor will never fire the firearm. In the same way, if there are an infinite number of instances of speech and silence before a hypothetical fixed instance of speech, that hypothetical instance of speech will never materialise. This is known as the absurdity of “tasalsul” or infinite regress.
Hence, the person adhering to this view must believe that Allāh did indeed have a first instance of speech at a fixed moment in history. They must therefore believe that before this first instance of speech Allāh was silent. This silence can either be for a fixed period of time or for an unending period of time. The second possibility is again absurd because if there was an infinite period of silence before the first instance of speech, the first instance of speech would never come about.
Hence, they must believe Allāh was silent for a fixed period of time before the first instance of speech. They cannot assert that there was another instance of speech before this period of silence, however, as it has been conceded that the first instance of speech occurs after this fixed period of silence. Since Allāh can only be in one of two states: speaking or not speaking, and before this fixed period of silence, He was neither speaking nor silent, the only possibility that remains is that Allāh Himself came into being before this fixed period of silence!
Hence, the belief of the followers of Ibn Taymiyyah with regards to Allāh’s speech entails that Allāh is not beginningless but had a beginning sometime in the past. This is the grounds on which the Ahlus Sunnah say that it is impossible to ascribe hawādith (temporal occurrences) to the being of Allāh as that would entail Allāh Himself is hādith (temporal). Instead, hawādith exist in a realm of existence quite separate from the unchanging and beginningless reality of Allāh’s being.
The belief described above is similar to the belief of the heretical Karrāmiyyah. Imām Abu l-Yusr al-Bazdawī al-Hanafī al-Māturīdī (421 – 493 H) writes in his Usūl al-Dīn:
“The Karrāmiyyah, and amongst them Muhammad ibn Haysam, say that the ‘kalām’ of Allāh is beginningless, although speech is originated but uncreated, subsisting in Allāh, Exalted is He. By ‘kalām’ they mean the ability to speak. The outcome of their ideology is that the speech of Allāh is temporal, because the one able to speak is not a speaker and ability to speak is not speech, just like the ability to move is not movement.” (p. 62) [1]
In other words, according to them, the ability to speak is without beginning, but speech itself is originated.
This view is scripturally unsound and rationally absurd as explained above.
The Mu‘tazilī View
Unlike the followers of Ibn Taymiyyah, the Mu‘tazilah do not believe that there is any speech subsisting, or arising from, the being of Allāh Himself. However, like the followers of Ibn Taymiyyah, they believe that Allāh’s “speech” consists of sounds and letters. They claim this speech is created through a medium separate from Allāh’s being.
Both the Ahlus Sunnah and the followers of Ibn Taymiyyah do not agree with this view on the grounds that an individual from whom speech does not arise will not be described as having the attribute of “speech” nor will he be described as a “speaker”. Yet, it is known through the scriptures and the testimony of the prophets that Allāh is described with speech and He is a speaker. Hence, speech must subsist in His very being. [2]
Another argument Imām al-Bayhaqī put forward against the Mu‘tazilī view is the hadīth: “I seek protection in the complete words of Allāh.” He explains that it is incorrect to seek protection in creation from creation. Thus, this hadīth shows Allāh’s word is His uncreated attribute. [3] Al-Bayhaqī also clarifies that the reason “words” is in the plural, despite Allāh’s speech in the view of Ahlus Sunnah being a single immaterial attribute, is that the plural form serves the purpose of glorification, just as Allāh uses the plural for Himself in the verse: “And verily We are its protectors.” (15:9). [4]
Moreover, the Mu‘tazilī belief opposes the consensus of the Salaf who said: “The Qur’ān is Allāh’s speech, uncreated.” [5]
The View of Ahlus Sunnah
The Ahlus Sunnah believe that Allāh is eternal with all His attributes including speech. The function of His attribute of speech is to give an indication towards some meanings. However, the exact reality of the speech is incomprehensible to us. This is similar to other well-known attributes of Allāh. For example, the result of Allāh’s “hearing” is that sounds are disclosed to Him, but the exact reality of that hearing as it subsists in Allāh’s being is beyond human understanding. But what we do know with certainty is that it is not comparable in any way to human hearing – hence, Allāh does not have a physical organ of hearing, like an ear.
Similarly, Allāh’s speech is an attribute by which He communicates ideas, but the exact reality of that speech is unfathomable. It is however nothing like human speech: it does not consist of sounds or letters, nor is it in need of an instrument of speech like a mouth or tongue. The speech of Allāh as it resides in His being is incomprehensible to us. However, in describing its funtion and consequences, we are in a position to say: it is an attribute which negates silence and muteness from Allāh and can be communicated and understood. By means of it, Allāh issues orders and sets prohibitions. He asks questions and delivers information.
The speech of Allāh that is without sound or letter, that does not have any of the characteristics of creatural speech, is eternal and without beginning. However, when this speech is communicated or understood by someone, that moment of understanding and hearing is time-bound and temporal. An example of this is the vision of Allāh in the afterlife. Believers will be blessed with a vision of Allāh’s being in the afterlife, which will be without the well-known characteristics of vision in the phenomenal world like distance, opposition and so on. This vision of Allāh will be temporal but that does not entail that the being of Allāh is temporal. His being is eternal and beginningless.
Similarly, the understanding and hearing of Allāh’s speech may be temporal, but that does not entail Allāh’s speech itself is not eternal and beginningless.
Imām Abū Bakr ibn Fūrak explains:
“The speech of Allāh is eternal, beginningless, preceding all temporal entities. He only makes whoever of His creation He wishes hear and understand [His speech] according to what He intends at [specific] times and occasions, not that the existence of the very essence of His speech is connected to a period and time.” (Mushkil al-Hadīth, p. 158) [6]
He further says:
“The speech of Allāh existed without ceasing and will exist without ceasing, and He makes His creation understand the meanings of His speech, part by part, and bit by bit. That which renews is the causation of hearing and the causation of understanding, not what is heard and understood.” (p. 271) [7]
In fact, just as there will be a vision of Allāh in the afterlife, a hadīth shows there will be a true disclosure of Allāh’s speech in the afterlife also. The hadīth states that Allāh will speak to His slave on Judgement Day without any interpreter between them. Ibn Fūrak explains:
“The intent of this is that He will make them understand His address on the Day of Resurrection without an interpreter, so when He takes them to account on the Day of Resurrection, He will make them understand His speech and make them hear His address without an intermediary, not like He made them understand in the world through the intermediaries of messengers and books.” (p. 272) [8]
Hence, according to this view, a person may hear the eternal speech of Allāh at a specific point in time, but that hearing is not in the manner of hearing that we are accustomed to with sounds and letters.
How does Allāh’s eternal speech relate to the words of the heavenly books and, in particular, the Qur’ān? The Qur’ān as we know it is a book containing words, sentences and chapters, written in an Arabic script, which is memorised by thousands of people world over. These words and sentences, the Arabic letters and script, our recitation and articulation of them, are all obviously temporal, created and originated.
However, the Qur’ān has a reality beyond its constituent parts. It is not just words and letters, sounds and vocalisations. Rather, there is an intangible quality in them which is the true Qur’ān and the actual speech of Allāh. An example presented by Hāfiz Ibn al-Jawzī is that of a human being. A human being is flesh and bone, skin and hair, but he has a reality beyond these physical parts and that is his true essence. [9]
‘Abdullāh ibn al-Mubārak said: “The paper and ink are created. As for the Qur’ān, it is neither Creator nor creation, but it is the speech of Allāh.” [10]
In other words, the Qur’ān is animated by a reality which subsists in the being of Allāh – His eternal speech. However, that reality, being infinite and timeless, is not itself situated in the finite and temporal words. As the theologians of Ahlus Sunnah have clarified, our recitation, the words, letters and sounds are all creations of Allāh, and are temporal, but that which is recited, heard and memorised is the eternal speech of Allāh.
Abū Bakr ibn Fūrak says:
“The Qur’ān is written in the Preserved Tablet but not situated therein, and it is not necessary for speech to dwell in the place of writing, just as [the Prophet] (Allāh bless him and grant him peace) is written in the Torah but is not located therein.” (Mushkil al-Hadīth, pp. 153-4) [11]
He further says:
“The speech is preserved in the hearts, recited by the tongues, written in the mushafs, just as Allāh – exalted is His praise – is mentioned on the tongues, worshipped by the limbs, but it is not possible for Him to be residing in any of that…Know that we do not reject the view that the speech of Allāh (Glorified is He) is literally preserved by memorisation in the hearts, written literally in the mushafs with a script located therein, recited by tongues with recitation from them, heard by the faculties of hearing, but it is not situated in any of these creations.” (p. 154) [12]
Imām al-Bayhaqī similarly says:
“The Qur’ān which we recite is the speech of Allāh, Exalted is He, and is in actuality recited by our tongues, written in our mushafs, preserved in our chests, heard by our hearing faculties, but not situated in any of that, since it is from the attributes of His being, not separate from it. This is just as the Creator, Great and Glorious is He, is known in our hearts, mentioned by our tongues, written in our books, worshipped in our masjids, heard by our hearing faculties, but not situated in any of that. As for our recitation, our writing and our memorisation, it is from our acquisition and our acquisition is undoubtedly created. Allāh, Great and Glorious is He, said: ‘And perform good that you may succeed,’ (22:77) and the Messenger of Allāh, Allāh bless him and grant him peace, called the recitation of the Qur’ān an action.” (al-Asmā’ wa l-Sifāt, 2:5) [13]
The great Shāfi‘ī faqīh and muhaddith, Abū Bakr Ahmad ibn Ishāq al-Sibghī (258 – 342 H) [14], wrote the following which was approved by some of the major scholars of his time:
“Whoever claims that Allāh, Exalted is He, did not speak but once, and did not speak except what He spoke and then His speech ended, has disbelieved in Allāh. Rather, Allāh did not cease to speak and He will not cease to speak. There is no likeness to His speech because it is an attribute from the attributes of His being. Allāh, Exalted is He, negated a likeness from His speech just as He negated likeness from His self, and He negated depletion from His speech just as He negated annihilation from His self. He, Great and Glorious is He, said: ‘Everything is perishing but His countenance.’ And He, Exalted is He, said: ‘Say: Had the sea been ink for the words of my Lord, the sea would have depleted before the words of my Lord had depleted.’ Thus, the speech of Allāh, Great and Glorious is He, is not separate from Allāh. It is not besides Him nor other than Him nor He Himself. Rather, it is an attribute from the attributes of the self, like His knowledge which is an attribute from the attributes of His self. Our Lord did not cease to be a Knower and He will not cease to be a Knower. He did not cease to be a Speaker and He will not cease to be a Speaker. Thus, He is described with lofty attributes, and He has remained One with all His attributes which are the attributes of His self and He will remain [such], and He is the Subtle, the Aware…The Qur’ān is the speech of Allāh, Exalted is He, and an attribute from His attributes. Nothing of His speech is a creation nor is it created, nor is it an action nor an effect, nor is it originated, nor temporal, nor is it events.” (al-Asmā’ wa l-Sifāt, 2:22) [15]
There are no inherent logical absurdities or contradictions on this view.
The heavenly scriptures are a physical form which express meanings that are also conveyed by the eternal speech of Allāh. Hence, when a person hears the heavenly scriptures, the meanings communicated by Allāh’s speech are communicated by those words. Hence, it is described as His speech. Ibn Fūrak says:
“Know that the speech of Allāh is not a sound, nor letters, according to us. It is only the expression of it that at times occurs with sound. An expression is an indication towards it and signs of it that appear to creation, upon which they hear the speech of Allāh – glorified is He – and understand the intent…We do not deny that the speech of Allāh has expressions that are sounds, of which in different languages.” (203-4) [16]
When a person speaks, his speech may be recorded in writing or reproduced in some other way. That record, however, is not literally the speech of the person, but an expression of it. Another way of understanding this is that we often paraphrase the speech of a person, saying: “He said:…” without using the exact words that he used. However, this too is regarded as the speech of the person quoted as it expresses the meanings conveyed by his speech. Similarly, some of the meanings conveyed by Allāh’s eternal speech are conveyed by the words of the heavenly scriptures and are thus His speech. Ibn Fūrak says:
“The meaning of the statement, ‘when Allāh speaks with revelation,’ is not that a new speech of His arises, but that the causation of hearing and of understanding arises anew by means of creating expressions and erecting indications by which the speech is understood, and these expressions are called by way of flexibility and metaphor ‘speech’ from the perspective that they are indications of it.” (p. 240) [17]
However, this does not mean that only the meanings of the Arabic Qur’ān are sacred. The meanings are indeed the most fundamental aspect of the Qur’ān’s reality, but the words of the Qur’ān are also sacred. This is because these words are a unique creation of Allāh unmatched and unmatchable by the words of man. They were created directly by Allāh without the intermediary of any sentient being. Hence, the heavenly scriptures contain words which are Allāh’s speech not only for conveying some of the meanings in Allāh’s eternal speech but also for being His direct, miraculous and unprecedented creation. [18]
Explaining this, al-Bayhaqī quotes a hadīth from Abū Hurayrah (may Allāh be pleased with him) recorded in Sahīh al-Bukhārī: “The people of the Book would recite the Torah in Hebrew and then explain it in Arabic for the people of Islām. Thus, the Messenger of Allāh (Allāh bless him and grant him peace) said: ‘Do not believe the people of the Book nor consider them liars. Instead, say: We believe in Allāh and what He sent to us and what He sent to you, and our God and your God is One, and We submit to Him.’”
Thereafter, al-Bayhaqī explains:
“In this is evidence that if they were assented to in what they explained from their book in Arabic, that would be from what was revealed to them in terms of an expression of what was revealed to them. The speech of Allāh, Exalted is He, is one, and does not vary with the variation of expressions. Thus, in whichever tongue it is recited, the speech of Allāh, Exalted is He, is recited. But it is only called Torah when recited in Hebew, and only called Injīl when recited in Syriac and only called Qur’ān when recited in Arabic in the seven dialects which the lawgiver permitted its recitation upon, due to its revelation on the tongue of Jibrīl, upon him blessing and peace, in those dialects to the exclusion of others, and due to the miraculous nature of its composition.” (Al-Asmā’ wa l-Sifāt, 2:25) [19]
Also see: darulmaarif.com/divineattributes/
14. Al-Dhahabī refers to him as “Imām ‘Allāmah Muftī Muhaddith Shaykh al-Islām.” (Siyar, 15:483) He was a Shāfi‘ī muhaddith from the students of Muhammad ibn Ishāq ibn Khuzaymah. He would issue fatwā in Naysābūr for over fifty years.
However, Muslim theologians have differed over the nature of Allāh’s speech.
In brief, there are three major opinions with respect to the speech of Allāh:
1. The belief of Ibn Taymiyyah and his followers (the contemporary “Salafīs”)
2. The belief of the Mu‘tazilah
3. The belief of Ahlus Sunnah wa l-Jamā‘ah
The following will look at each of these theological positions in turn.
The “Salafī” View
According to the followers of Ibn Taymiyyah, Allāh is a beginningless entity Who possessed the ability to speak in all eternity. However, Allāh only truly speaks within a time-specific instantiation of speech, and each instance of speech is composed of sounds and letters. This time-specific speech emerges directly from the being of Allāh. According to this view, Allāh speaks for some time and remains quiet for some time, and He was like this for all eternity. This view is based on an analogy of Allāh’s speech with the speech of human beings and amounts to comparing Allāh to His creation which is expressly rejected in the Sharī‘ah.
Moreover, it is logically absurd as demonstrated in the following.
According to this view, Allāh, like human beings, is silent (not speaking) but His silence is punctuated by moments of speech. One who holds this position can believe only one of two things: either Allāh had a first instance of speech or He did not have a first instance of speech. The second possibility is absurd as it results in an infinite regress: If one were to say (on this view) that there was no first moment of speech, but there were successive periods of silence and speech unenendingly into the infinite past, this would entail that there would never be a single instance of speech. To understand why, if we were to take a hypothetical instance of speech at a fixed moment in history, and we assert that there was an infinite number of moments of silence and speech before this, that hypothetical instance of speech would not occur because an actual infinite can by definition never be completed. This can be demonstrated by the famous illustration of a man on death row whose executioner awaits the command of his superior to fire the firearm, but his superior must also await a command from his superior, and he from his superior; if this continues ad infinitum, the executor will never fire the firearm. In the same way, if there are an infinite number of instances of speech and silence before a hypothetical fixed instance of speech, that hypothetical instance of speech will never materialise. This is known as the absurdity of “tasalsul” or infinite regress.
Hence, the person adhering to this view must believe that Allāh did indeed have a first instance of speech at a fixed moment in history. They must therefore believe that before this first instance of speech Allāh was silent. This silence can either be for a fixed period of time or for an unending period of time. The second possibility is again absurd because if there was an infinite period of silence before the first instance of speech, the first instance of speech would never come about.
Hence, they must believe Allāh was silent for a fixed period of time before the first instance of speech. They cannot assert that there was another instance of speech before this period of silence, however, as it has been conceded that the first instance of speech occurs after this fixed period of silence. Since Allāh can only be in one of two states: speaking or not speaking, and before this fixed period of silence, He was neither speaking nor silent, the only possibility that remains is that Allāh Himself came into being before this fixed period of silence!
Hence, the belief of the followers of Ibn Taymiyyah with regards to Allāh’s speech entails that Allāh is not beginningless but had a beginning sometime in the past. This is the grounds on which the Ahlus Sunnah say that it is impossible to ascribe hawādith (temporal occurrences) to the being of Allāh as that would entail Allāh Himself is hādith (temporal). Instead, hawādith exist in a realm of existence quite separate from the unchanging and beginningless reality of Allāh’s being.
The belief described above is similar to the belief of the heretical Karrāmiyyah. Imām Abu l-Yusr al-Bazdawī al-Hanafī al-Māturīdī (421 – 493 H) writes in his Usūl al-Dīn:
“The Karrāmiyyah, and amongst them Muhammad ibn Haysam, say that the ‘kalām’ of Allāh is beginningless, although speech is originated but uncreated, subsisting in Allāh, Exalted is He. By ‘kalām’ they mean the ability to speak. The outcome of their ideology is that the speech of Allāh is temporal, because the one able to speak is not a speaker and ability to speak is not speech, just like the ability to move is not movement.” (p. 62) [1]
In other words, according to them, the ability to speak is without beginning, but speech itself is originated.
This view is scripturally unsound and rationally absurd as explained above.
The Mu‘tazilī View
Unlike the followers of Ibn Taymiyyah, the Mu‘tazilah do not believe that there is any speech subsisting, or arising from, the being of Allāh Himself. However, like the followers of Ibn Taymiyyah, they believe that Allāh’s “speech” consists of sounds and letters. They claim this speech is created through a medium separate from Allāh’s being.
Both the Ahlus Sunnah and the followers of Ibn Taymiyyah do not agree with this view on the grounds that an individual from whom speech does not arise will not be described as having the attribute of “speech” nor will he be described as a “speaker”. Yet, it is known through the scriptures and the testimony of the prophets that Allāh is described with speech and He is a speaker. Hence, speech must subsist in His very being. [2]
Another argument Imām al-Bayhaqī put forward against the Mu‘tazilī view is the hadīth: “I seek protection in the complete words of Allāh.” He explains that it is incorrect to seek protection in creation from creation. Thus, this hadīth shows Allāh’s word is His uncreated attribute. [3] Al-Bayhaqī also clarifies that the reason “words” is in the plural, despite Allāh’s speech in the view of Ahlus Sunnah being a single immaterial attribute, is that the plural form serves the purpose of glorification, just as Allāh uses the plural for Himself in the verse: “And verily We are its protectors.” (15:9). [4]
Moreover, the Mu‘tazilī belief opposes the consensus of the Salaf who said: “The Qur’ān is Allāh’s speech, uncreated.” [5]
The View of Ahlus Sunnah
The Ahlus Sunnah believe that Allāh is eternal with all His attributes including speech. The function of His attribute of speech is to give an indication towards some meanings. However, the exact reality of the speech is incomprehensible to us. This is similar to other well-known attributes of Allāh. For example, the result of Allāh’s “hearing” is that sounds are disclosed to Him, but the exact reality of that hearing as it subsists in Allāh’s being is beyond human understanding. But what we do know with certainty is that it is not comparable in any way to human hearing – hence, Allāh does not have a physical organ of hearing, like an ear.
Similarly, Allāh’s speech is an attribute by which He communicates ideas, but the exact reality of that speech is unfathomable. It is however nothing like human speech: it does not consist of sounds or letters, nor is it in need of an instrument of speech like a mouth or tongue. The speech of Allāh as it resides in His being is incomprehensible to us. However, in describing its funtion and consequences, we are in a position to say: it is an attribute which negates silence and muteness from Allāh and can be communicated and understood. By means of it, Allāh issues orders and sets prohibitions. He asks questions and delivers information.
The speech of Allāh that is without sound or letter, that does not have any of the characteristics of creatural speech, is eternal and without beginning. However, when this speech is communicated or understood by someone, that moment of understanding and hearing is time-bound and temporal. An example of this is the vision of Allāh in the afterlife. Believers will be blessed with a vision of Allāh’s being in the afterlife, which will be without the well-known characteristics of vision in the phenomenal world like distance, opposition and so on. This vision of Allāh will be temporal but that does not entail that the being of Allāh is temporal. His being is eternal and beginningless.
Similarly, the understanding and hearing of Allāh’s speech may be temporal, but that does not entail Allāh’s speech itself is not eternal and beginningless.
Imām Abū Bakr ibn Fūrak explains:
“The speech of Allāh is eternal, beginningless, preceding all temporal entities. He only makes whoever of His creation He wishes hear and understand [His speech] according to what He intends at [specific] times and occasions, not that the existence of the very essence of His speech is connected to a period and time.” (Mushkil al-Hadīth, p. 158) [6]
He further says:
“The speech of Allāh existed without ceasing and will exist without ceasing, and He makes His creation understand the meanings of His speech, part by part, and bit by bit. That which renews is the causation of hearing and the causation of understanding, not what is heard and understood.” (p. 271) [7]
In fact, just as there will be a vision of Allāh in the afterlife, a hadīth shows there will be a true disclosure of Allāh’s speech in the afterlife also. The hadīth states that Allāh will speak to His slave on Judgement Day without any interpreter between them. Ibn Fūrak explains:
“The intent of this is that He will make them understand His address on the Day of Resurrection without an interpreter, so when He takes them to account on the Day of Resurrection, He will make them understand His speech and make them hear His address without an intermediary, not like He made them understand in the world through the intermediaries of messengers and books.” (p. 272) [8]
Hence, according to this view, a person may hear the eternal speech of Allāh at a specific point in time, but that hearing is not in the manner of hearing that we are accustomed to with sounds and letters.
How does Allāh’s eternal speech relate to the words of the heavenly books and, in particular, the Qur’ān? The Qur’ān as we know it is a book containing words, sentences and chapters, written in an Arabic script, which is memorised by thousands of people world over. These words and sentences, the Arabic letters and script, our recitation and articulation of them, are all obviously temporal, created and originated.
However, the Qur’ān has a reality beyond its constituent parts. It is not just words and letters, sounds and vocalisations. Rather, there is an intangible quality in them which is the true Qur’ān and the actual speech of Allāh. An example presented by Hāfiz Ibn al-Jawzī is that of a human being. A human being is flesh and bone, skin and hair, but he has a reality beyond these physical parts and that is his true essence. [9]
‘Abdullāh ibn al-Mubārak said: “The paper and ink are created. As for the Qur’ān, it is neither Creator nor creation, but it is the speech of Allāh.” [10]
In other words, the Qur’ān is animated by a reality which subsists in the being of Allāh – His eternal speech. However, that reality, being infinite and timeless, is not itself situated in the finite and temporal words. As the theologians of Ahlus Sunnah have clarified, our recitation, the words, letters and sounds are all creations of Allāh, and are temporal, but that which is recited, heard and memorised is the eternal speech of Allāh.
Abū Bakr ibn Fūrak says:
“The Qur’ān is written in the Preserved Tablet but not situated therein, and it is not necessary for speech to dwell in the place of writing, just as [the Prophet] (Allāh bless him and grant him peace) is written in the Torah but is not located therein.” (Mushkil al-Hadīth, pp. 153-4) [11]
He further says:
“The speech is preserved in the hearts, recited by the tongues, written in the mushafs, just as Allāh – exalted is His praise – is mentioned on the tongues, worshipped by the limbs, but it is not possible for Him to be residing in any of that…Know that we do not reject the view that the speech of Allāh (Glorified is He) is literally preserved by memorisation in the hearts, written literally in the mushafs with a script located therein, recited by tongues with recitation from them, heard by the faculties of hearing, but it is not situated in any of these creations.” (p. 154) [12]
Imām al-Bayhaqī similarly says:
“The Qur’ān which we recite is the speech of Allāh, Exalted is He, and is in actuality recited by our tongues, written in our mushafs, preserved in our chests, heard by our hearing faculties, but not situated in any of that, since it is from the attributes of His being, not separate from it. This is just as the Creator, Great and Glorious is He, is known in our hearts, mentioned by our tongues, written in our books, worshipped in our masjids, heard by our hearing faculties, but not situated in any of that. As for our recitation, our writing and our memorisation, it is from our acquisition and our acquisition is undoubtedly created. Allāh, Great and Glorious is He, said: ‘And perform good that you may succeed,’ (22:77) and the Messenger of Allāh, Allāh bless him and grant him peace, called the recitation of the Qur’ān an action.” (al-Asmā’ wa l-Sifāt, 2:5) [13]
The great Shāfi‘ī faqīh and muhaddith, Abū Bakr Ahmad ibn Ishāq al-Sibghī (258 – 342 H) [14], wrote the following which was approved by some of the major scholars of his time:
“Whoever claims that Allāh, Exalted is He, did not speak but once, and did not speak except what He spoke and then His speech ended, has disbelieved in Allāh. Rather, Allāh did not cease to speak and He will not cease to speak. There is no likeness to His speech because it is an attribute from the attributes of His being. Allāh, Exalted is He, negated a likeness from His speech just as He negated likeness from His self, and He negated depletion from His speech just as He negated annihilation from His self. He, Great and Glorious is He, said: ‘Everything is perishing but His countenance.’ And He, Exalted is He, said: ‘Say: Had the sea been ink for the words of my Lord, the sea would have depleted before the words of my Lord had depleted.’ Thus, the speech of Allāh, Great and Glorious is He, is not separate from Allāh. It is not besides Him nor other than Him nor He Himself. Rather, it is an attribute from the attributes of the self, like His knowledge which is an attribute from the attributes of His self. Our Lord did not cease to be a Knower and He will not cease to be a Knower. He did not cease to be a Speaker and He will not cease to be a Speaker. Thus, He is described with lofty attributes, and He has remained One with all His attributes which are the attributes of His self and He will remain [such], and He is the Subtle, the Aware…The Qur’ān is the speech of Allāh, Exalted is He, and an attribute from His attributes. Nothing of His speech is a creation nor is it created, nor is it an action nor an effect, nor is it originated, nor temporal, nor is it events.” (al-Asmā’ wa l-Sifāt, 2:22) [15]
There are no inherent logical absurdities or contradictions on this view.
The heavenly scriptures are a physical form which express meanings that are also conveyed by the eternal speech of Allāh. Hence, when a person hears the heavenly scriptures, the meanings communicated by Allāh’s speech are communicated by those words. Hence, it is described as His speech. Ibn Fūrak says:
“Know that the speech of Allāh is not a sound, nor letters, according to us. It is only the expression of it that at times occurs with sound. An expression is an indication towards it and signs of it that appear to creation, upon which they hear the speech of Allāh – glorified is He – and understand the intent…We do not deny that the speech of Allāh has expressions that are sounds, of which in different languages.” (203-4) [16]
When a person speaks, his speech may be recorded in writing or reproduced in some other way. That record, however, is not literally the speech of the person, but an expression of it. Another way of understanding this is that we often paraphrase the speech of a person, saying: “He said:…” without using the exact words that he used. However, this too is regarded as the speech of the person quoted as it expresses the meanings conveyed by his speech. Similarly, some of the meanings conveyed by Allāh’s eternal speech are conveyed by the words of the heavenly scriptures and are thus His speech. Ibn Fūrak says:
“The meaning of the statement, ‘when Allāh speaks with revelation,’ is not that a new speech of His arises, but that the causation of hearing and of understanding arises anew by means of creating expressions and erecting indications by which the speech is understood, and these expressions are called by way of flexibility and metaphor ‘speech’ from the perspective that they are indications of it.” (p. 240) [17]
However, this does not mean that only the meanings of the Arabic Qur’ān are sacred. The meanings are indeed the most fundamental aspect of the Qur’ān’s reality, but the words of the Qur’ān are also sacred. This is because these words are a unique creation of Allāh unmatched and unmatchable by the words of man. They were created directly by Allāh without the intermediary of any sentient being. Hence, the heavenly scriptures contain words which are Allāh’s speech not only for conveying some of the meanings in Allāh’s eternal speech but also for being His direct, miraculous and unprecedented creation. [18]
Explaining this, al-Bayhaqī quotes a hadīth from Abū Hurayrah (may Allāh be pleased with him) recorded in Sahīh al-Bukhārī: “The people of the Book would recite the Torah in Hebrew and then explain it in Arabic for the people of Islām. Thus, the Messenger of Allāh (Allāh bless him and grant him peace) said: ‘Do not believe the people of the Book nor consider them liars. Instead, say: We believe in Allāh and what He sent to us and what He sent to you, and our God and your God is One, and We submit to Him.’”
Thereafter, al-Bayhaqī explains:
“In this is evidence that if they were assented to in what they explained from their book in Arabic, that would be from what was revealed to them in terms of an expression of what was revealed to them. The speech of Allāh, Exalted is He, is one, and does not vary with the variation of expressions. Thus, in whichever tongue it is recited, the speech of Allāh, Exalted is He, is recited. But it is only called Torah when recited in Hebew, and only called Injīl when recited in Syriac and only called Qur’ān when recited in Arabic in the seven dialects which the lawgiver permitted its recitation upon, due to its revelation on the tongue of Jibrīl, upon him blessing and peace, in those dialects to the exclusion of others, and due to the miraculous nature of its composition.” (Al-Asmā’ wa l-Sifāt, 2:25) [19]
Also see: darulmaarif.com/divineattributes/
١. وقالت الكرامية ومنهم محمد بن هيصم: إن كلام الله تعالى قديم والقول حادث غير محدث قائم بالله تعالى، وعنوا بالكلام: القدرة على التكلم، فكان الحاصل من مذهبهم أن كلام الله تعالى حادث فإن القادر على الكلام لا يكون متكلما، والقدرة على الكلام لا تكون كلاما، كالقدرة على الحركة ليست بحركة. أصول الدين، للبزدوي، ص٦٢
14. Al-Dhahabī refers to him as “Imām ‘Allāmah Muftī Muhaddith Shaykh al-Islām.” (Siyar, 15:483) He was a Shāfi‘ī muhaddith from the students of Muhammad ibn Ishāq ibn Khuzaymah. He would issue fatwā in Naysābūr for over fifty years.
