LessonsThe Uncreated Qur’an: Divine Speech, Wording, Meaning and AttributionQuiz

فَنَحْنُ لَا نَقُولُ بِقِدَمِ الْأَلْفَاظِ وَالْحُرُوفِ
We do not hold letters and verbal expressions to be eternal.

The argument distinguishes God’s eternal speech from the temporal production of its verbal expression. The succession of phonemes, movements of the tongue and physical generation of a voice are not treated as constituents of an eternal divine attribute.

Admitting that uttered letters and sounds occur in time is one claim; reducing all divine speech to those created sounds is another. The first does not establish that the divine attribute originated. The second is a separate dispute concerning whether inner speech truly exists.

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The issue of eternal letters and sounds

The Uncreated Qur’an: Divine Speech, Wording, Meaning and Attribution

فَنَحْنُ لَا نَقُولُ بِقِدَمِ الْأَلْفَاظِ وَالْحُرُوفِ
We do not hold letters and verbal expressions to be eternal.

The argument distinguishes God’s eternal speech from the temporal production of its verbal expression. The succession of phonemes, movements of the tongue and physical generation of a voice are not treated as constituents of an eternal divine attribute.

Admitting that uttered letters and sounds occur in time is one claim; reducing all divine speech to those created sounds is another. The first does not establish that the divine attribute originated. The second is a separate dispute concerning whether inner speech truly exists.