Mass transmission (tawātur) is central to the recognition of the Qur’anic text. The familiar Arabic arrangement has been conveyed through sustained recitation and writing, establishing the recognized verses and surahs as the transmitted Qur’an.
A further theological question nevertheless remains: how does that transmitted expression relate to the eternal inner speech? The fact of widespread textual transmission does not, on its own, settle the metaphysical nature of the divine attribute. That requires a distinction between attribute and signification.
Thus the transmitted Arabic wording is neither dismissed as irrelevant nor are all its audible performances treated as eternal parts of God’s speech. Establishing the text and describing the attribute are distinct but related inquiries.