Praise be to Allah, and may peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah.
The Qur’an is the Word of Allah, and speech is an attribute of the one who speaks. The attributes of Allah are uncreated.
As for provision, in the sense of food, money, and similar things, these are created things that exist independently. The distinction is that speech is an attribute of Allah, whereas provisions are created things that He brings into existence. Therefore, it is not valid to draw an analogy between the two merely because both are attributed to Him, Glorified and Exalted is He.
The description of a speaker is not limited to his ability to speak. The speech that he utters is also attributed to him; thus, we say, “the speech of so-and-so,” meaning the words that he said.
Allah has called the Qur’an His Speech. He says:
“And if any of the polytheists seeks your protection, then grant him protection so that he may hear the Speech of Allah.”
[At-Tawbah 9:6]
What is intended here is the Qur’an that is heard, not merely the ability to speak.
Therefore, it is not correct to separate the act of speaking from the words on the basis that the former is an attribute while the latter is a created thing resulting from it. The words that Allah spoke are His Speech.
Ibn ʿUthaymīn explained that speech is not an independently existing entity separate from Allah. Rather, it is an attribute of the one who speaks it, and all of Allah’s attributes are uncreated. See: Sharḥ as-Safārīniyyah (1/427).
The provisions referred to in the question, such as food and money, are independently existing things that Allah created and delivered to His servants. Speech, however, is not an independent thing of this kind; rather, it is an attribute of the one who utters it.
Therefore, merely attributing something to Allah does not mean that the thing attributed is one of His attributes. It may be:
Ibn Taymiyyah explained that mere attribution does not make everything attributed an attribute. Rather, one must consider the reality and nature of the thing being attributed. See: Al-Jawāb aṣ-Ṣaḥīḥ (4/414).
Thus, the fact that provision is created does not entail that the Speech of Allah is created, because the type of attribution and the reality of the thing attributed are different.
Ibn Taymiyyah transmitted the statement of the early generations concerning the Qur’an:
“The Speech of Allah, uncreated; from Him it began, and to Him it returns.”
He explained “from Him it began” to mean that Allah is the One who spoke it, rather than that He created it in another entity and then speech originated from that created entity.
Allah caused Jibrīl to hear it, and Jibrīl conveyed it to Muhammad ﷺ.
This does not mean that the attribute of Speech departed from the Essence of Allah and moved to someone else.
As for “and to Him it returns,” Ibn Taymiyyah explained it as referring to the Qur’an being taken away, until no verse of it remains in people’s hearts and no letter remains in the written copies. See: Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā (12/561).
The point is to affirm that Allah is the One who spoke the Qur’an, without imagining speech as a material thing that became separated from Him.
Allah says:
“Our command to a thing when We intend it is only that We say to it, ‘Be,’ and it is.”
[An-Naḥl 16:40]
The verse distinguishes between Allah’s statement and the thing that comes into existence through His statement.
The fatwa uses this as evidence that the speech through which creation takes place is not itself one of the created things.
Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī explained the reasoning:
If the word “Be” were created, it would require another statement by which it was created; then that statement would require another, and so on without end—or ultimately the matter would have to end with a statement of Allah that is uncreated. See: Al-Ibānah, p. 65.
Allah also says:
“Unquestionably, to Him belong the creation and the command. Blessed is Allah, Lord of the worlds.”
[Al-Aʿrāf 7:54]
Al-Lālakāʾī transmitted that a number of leading scholars used the distinction between creation, meaning created things, and the command, which is the Speech of Allah, as evidence. See: Sharḥ Uṣūl Iʿtiqād Ahl as-Sunnah (2/243).
Allah says:
“But the word from Me has come into effect: ‘I will surely fill Hell with jinn and people altogether.’”
[As-Sajdah 32:13]
The scholars whose statements are transmitted as evidence understood the “word” to be an attribute of Allah.
Thus, the expression “from Allah” in this argument means that it is His Speech and His attribute. It does not mean that everything that comes from Allah, such as provisions, is uncreated.
Allah also says:
“If all the trees on earth were pens and the sea, replenished by seven seas after it, were ink, the Words of Allah would not be exhausted. Indeed, Allah is Almighty, All-Wise.”
[Luqmān 31:27]
Al-Lālakāʾī used the inexhaustibility of the Words of Allah as evidence, in contrast to created things that are used as tools for writing them. See: Sharḥ Uṣūl Iʿtiqād Ahl as-Sunnah (2/244–245).
The fatwa also conveys the consensus of Ahl as-Sunnah that the Qur’an is the Speech of Allah and is uncreated. It mentions their ruling that declaring the Qur’an created constitutes disbelief, as Al-Lālakāʾī compiled their statements in his book (2/300–342).
The fundamental difference is that provision, meaning the things provided as sustenance, is an independently existing created thing, whereas the Qur’an is the Speech and attribute of Allah.
Therefore, it is not correct to regard the Qur’an as a created thing resulting from the act of speaking, nor is it valid to compare it with provisions. The revealed texts affirm Speech for Allah and distinguish between His statement and the created things that come into existence by His command.
And Allah knows best.