Thread by @AbdelbarrMalki1

The Qur'an in its entirety is Allah's uncreated speech. 🧵1/20

I was asked: (If what pharaoh spoke is his created speech, is it uncreated when quoted by Allah?)

The answer is: Such question arises from a misunderstanding of what it means for Allah’s speech to be uncreated.

The uncreated nature of His speech does not pertain to the specific words spoken by another being but rather to the speech that He Himself initiated, uttered, and expressed. Allah’s speech is uncreated because it subsists in His essence, encompassing both meaning and expression.

When Allah mentioned that Pharaoh said, “I am your most exalted lord” (Quran 79:24), The speech that subsisted in him is his, and since Pharaoh is a created being, his speech is likewise created. However, when Allah narrated Pharaoh’s words in the Quran,

that is Allah’s initiated speech, subsisting in Him, and expressed in His own unique words and formulation. As such, it is His attribute (ṣifah), uncreated in its entirety.

Here, we must recognize the distinction between the particulars of their respective expressions

with the shared abstract meaning in both of them. In other words, the speech spoken by Pharaoh and the speech spoken by Allah align in their (Qadr Mushtarak of meaning) but are entirely different in their particulars (aʿyān).

Pharaoh’s particular speech is created, while Allah’s particular speech is uncreated.

The speech of any created being is created because it subsists in their essence. Conversely, the speech of the Creator is uncreated because it subsists in His essence. To clarify this further:

if I were to quote a Quranic verse while explaining its meaning (tafsīr), the expression I use—my voice, my letters, and my words—would be mine and therefore created. However, the portion of the Quran being quoted, which subsisted in Allah’s essence, remains His and uncreated.

This distinction illustrates that what subsists in Allah is not the same particular that subsists in a created being. All letters and sounds that are from Allah’s speech are uncreated, while all letters and sounds from created beings are created.

If someone claims these are the same letters and sounds, we clarify that they are the same in type (naw') but distinct and separate in their particulars (aʿyān). Just as speech is one by type yet divided into: created and uncreated based on the particular of that speech.

Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah elaborates on this, refuting those who claim that speech consists solely of letters and sounds without meaning:

"The letters and sounds that Moses heard were in Hebrew, whereas those mentioned by Allah in the Quran are in Arabic.

If speech consisted solely of letters and sounds, there would be no commonality (Qadr Mushtarak) between what Moses heard and what Allah reported Moses heard. Instead, it would be a lie to claim that Moses heard these sounds which he did not.

Similarly, all of what Allah recounts in the Quran as being said from earlier nations—spoken in non-Arabic languages—was articulated in their respective tongues. Yet Allah narrated it in the language in which he sent down the Quran which is Arabic. Allah’s speech is truthful.

So, if the sayings of these nations consisted solely of their specific letters and sounds, which differ from those in the Quran, then Allah’s narration would not truly be of their statements. However, their speech included both letters and meanings,

and Allah narrated it in another language. Letters are subordinate to meanings, and meanings are the primary focus, just as when translating the speech of anyone." Al-Tisʿīniyya (2/464)

This concept also applies to Allah’s expression of shared meanings in different languages.

For instance, if Allah expresses a particular meaning in Hebrew in the Torah, and then expresses the same meaning in Arabic in the Quran, the speech of Allah in the Quran does not consist solely of the Arabic expression denoting that meaning.

Rather, the composite of the Arabic wording and its meaning constitutes the Quran. Similarly, the composite of wording and meaning in the Torah constitutes the Torah. The two correspond in their shared abstract content but differ in their individual realities.

At one time, the specific composite of wording and meaning subsisted in Allah as His Torahic Speech, and at another time, another specific composite of wording and meaning also subsisted in Him as His Qur'anic Speech.

If this pertains even to the particulars of Allah’s speech itself, then speech consisting of words and meanings that originates from a created being and is later narrated by Allah in His speech—consisting of distinct words and meanings—these two are even more distinct.

They differ categorically in the particulars of their words and meanings, while aligning only in the shared abstract meaning, which forms the essence of the denotation and the referent of the words.

Summary:

Then Allah narrates speech that originated from a created being, His own speech—its letters, sounds, and meanings—is entirely distinct and subsists within His essence. It is uncreated, aligning only in the shared abstract meaning with the created speech being quoted.