Praise be to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah. To proceed:
According to what the fatwa establishes, Allah Almighty truly speaks. He speaks whenever He wills and whatever He wills, and His speech can be heard. This includes the Qur’an, which Allah spoke and which Jibril (Gabriel), peace be upon him, heard from Him.
The fatwa also establishes that Allah’s speech is with letters and a voice, in a manner befitting Him, without likening His voice to the voices of created beings. The calling mentioned in the hadiths is real speech and is not merely an internal meaning subsisting in the Essence that cannot be heard.
Allah’s speech is affirmed in many revealed texts. Allah says:
“And Allah spoke to Moses directly.”
[An-Nisā’: 164]
And Allah said to Moses, peace be upon him:
“O Moses, I have chosen you above the people with My messages and My speech.”
[Al-A‘rāf: 144]
Allah also says:
“When he came to it, he was called: ‘O Moses! Indeed, I am your Lord, so remove your sandals. Indeed, you are in the sacred valley of Ṭuwā.’”
[Ṭā-Hā: 11–12]
These texts establish that Allah spoke to Moses and called him, and that Moses, peace be upon him, heard the speech of his Lord.
The fatwa establishes that Allah has always possessed the attribute of speech and that He speaks whenever He wills and whatever He wills.
It cites Ibn Taymiyyah as stating that the position of the majority of the scholars of hadith and their leading imams is that Allah speaks by His will and power, and that the Qur’an and the other revealed Books are the uncreated speech of Allah.
Ibn Abi al-‘Izz is also quoted as saying that Allah:
“Has always been speaking whenever He wills, when He wills, and however He wills.”
Thus, the attribute of speech is established for Allah, while His individual acts of speech are connected to His will. He speaks whenever He wills in the manner befitting Him.
The Qur’an itself consists of surahs, verses, words, and letters, and it is the speech of Allah.
Allah 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: 6]
According to the fatwa, Allah truly spoke the Qur’an. Jibril, peace be upon him, heard it from Him and then conveyed it to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.
Therefore, the fatwa establishes that Allah’s speech is not merely an internal meaning that was later expressed by Jibril or someone else using words of their own.
According to the view adopted by the fatwa, Allah speaks with a voice that is heard, but His voice is not like the voices of created beings.
It cites Imam al-Bukhari as saying:
“Allah, Mighty and Majestic, calls with a voice that is heard by those who are far away just as it is heard by those who are near.”
He then explained that this does not mean that Allah’s voice resembles the voices of His creation.
The governing principle is Allah’s statement:
“There is nothing like Him, and He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing.”
[Ash-Shūrā: 11]
Thus, according to the texts and the fatwa, we affirm speech and voice without imagining their manner or comparing them to human speech.
It is authentically reported from the Prophet ﷺ that Allah Almighty says during the final third of the night:
“Who will call upon Me so that I may answer him? Who will ask Me so that I may give him? Who will seek My forgiveness so that I may forgive him?”
Narrated by al-Bukhari and Muslim.
According to the fatwa, this is real speech of Allah Almighty connected to His will. It is not merely an internal meaning without letters or sound.
This does not require us to know how this speech or voice occurs, because the manner of Allah’s attributes belongs to the unseen, about which we have not been informed.
Those who affirm this concept mean an internal meaning subsisting within the self that is not composed of letters or sounds, while spoken or written words are merely expressions of that meaning.
The fatwa rejects the idea that this constitutes the reality of Allah’s speech and states that this conception is inconsistent with the apparent meaning of the texts describing Allah as speaking, calling, and saying, and stating that Moses heard His speech.
It also argues that language itself distinguishes between what a person says within himself and what he actually speaks aloud.
The Prophet ﷺ said:
“Allah has pardoned my nation for what they say within themselves, so long as they do not act upon it or speak it.”
Narrated by al-Bukhari and Muslim.
The hadith therefore distinguishes between internal thoughts and actual speech.
No. This is an important point to prevent confusion.
The Qur’an is the speech of Allah, but the human voice reciting the Qur’an is the voice of the reciter.
The human being, his voice, and his movements are created, whereas the words being recited are the speech of Allah in terms of their origin and attribution to Him.
Therefore, saying that Allah spoke the Qur’an with a voice does not mean that the voices of people reciting the Qur’an are the voice of Allah.
No.
Affirming that Allah speaks does not permit us to attempt to imagine how His speech or voice is.
Just as Allah’s Essence does not resemble the essences of created beings, His attributes do not resemble their attributes. Faith consists of affirming what has been established, denying resemblance, and refraining from asking how.
According to what the fatwa establishes, Allah Almighty truly speaks. He speaks whenever He wills and whatever He wills, and His speech is with letters and an audible voice in a manner befitting Him, without resembling the speech or voices of created beings.
The Qur’an is the uncreated speech of Allah. Allah spoke it, and Jibril, peace be upon him, heard it from Him. As for people’s voices when reciting the Qur’an, they are their created voices.
Accordingly, the calling mentioned in the hadith of the descent is real speech of Allah Almighty and not merely “internal speech” without letters or sound, while it remains obligatory to refrain from discussing the manner of Allah’s speech or voice.
And Allah knows best.