Praise be to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah. To proceed:
This doubt is invalid. Allah’s highness above His creation is established by the Qur’an, the Sunnah, and the consensus of the leading scholars of Ahl al-Sunnah. Allah’s statement, “To Him ascends good speech,” is among the evidences scholars have used to affirm Allah’s highness and His being above His creation. The fact that speech is classified as an accident does not prevent it from ascending, because the revealed text explicitly states that it does, and because accidents may be described as ascending, moving, or being weighed according to the modalities Allah creates for them.
Allah’s highness above His creation is established by numerous proofs from the Qur’an and Sunnah, and by the position of the leading scholars of Ahl al-Sunnah. It is also indicated by reason and natural disposition.
Among the Qur’anic evidences is Allah’s statement:
“To Him ascends good speech, and righteous action raises it.”
[Fatir 35:10]
The verse explicitly states that good speech ascends to Him, Glorified be He.
A number of leading scholars used this verse as evidence for Allah’s highness, including Abu al-Hasan al-Ash‘ari, al-Bayhaqi, Ibn Khuzaymah, Abu al-Qasim al-Asbahani, Ibn Battah, ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani, al-Dhahabi, and others.
This shows that understanding the verse as affirming Allah’s highness was not a later innovation. Rather, it was one of the recognized forms of evidence employed by a number of leading Sunni scholars.
It is reported from ‘Abdullah ibn Mas‘ud, may Allah be pleased with him, in explanation of this verse that when a servant says: “Subhan Allah, al-hamdu lillah, la ilaha illa Allah, Allahu akbar, and tabaraka Allah,” an angel takes these words, gathers them beneath his wing, and ascends with them. He does not pass by any group of angels except that they seek forgiveness for the person who uttered them, until he brings them before the Face of the Most Merciful. Ibn Mas‘ud then recited:
“To Him ascends good speech.”
[Fatir 35:10]
This report from Ibn Mas‘ud has been transmitted in a number of works of tafsir and hadith, and scholars have regarded it as sound. It agrees with the apparent meaning of the verse, namely that good speech ascends to Allah by means of an angel.
There is therefore no basis for diverting the verse from its apparent meaning merely on the claim that speech is an accident.
The answer is: No.
Merely describing speech as an accident does not entail that its ascent is impossible, because the claim that accidents can never undergo movement or ascent is not an unavoidable rule.
Rather, the revealed texts affirm matters connected to deeds and words. Among them is the saying of the Prophet ﷺ:
“Two words are light on the tongue, heavy on the Scale, and beloved to the Most Merciful: Subhan Allahi wa bihamdihi, Subhan Allah al-‘Azim.”
Narrated by al-Bukhari and Muslim.
Words and deeds will therefore be connected to weighing on the Day of Resurrection, as established by the texts. Thus, it is incorrect to say that merely describing something as an accident makes every form of movement, ascent, or relation to something else impossible for it.
Allah knows best the modalities of these matters, and our rational conceptions concerning the nature of accidents must not be made judges over established revelation.
If it were claimed that speech cannot ascend because it is an accident, then this objection would not be limited to speech. Allah has also informed us of the ascent of the angels:
“The angels and the Spirit ascend to Him in a day whose measure is fifty thousand years.”
[Al-Ma‘arij 70:4]
And the Prophet ﷺ said regarding the angels who alternate among the servants:
“Then those who spent the night among you ascend.”
Narrated by al-Bukhari and Muslim.
Thus, the angels ascend to Allah, as stated in the Qur’an and Sunnah.
The point is that affirming ascent and rising does not depend upon something belonging to a particular category of beings. Rather, the reference is to what Allah and His Messenger have informed us about.
The real problem in this doubt lies in taking the theologians’ classification of things into “substances and accidents,” building necessary rules upon that classification, and then rejecting the apparent meaning of revealed texts whenever those rules appear to conflict with them.
Ahl al-Sunnah, however, believe in what Allah and His Messenger have informed us of. They affirm Allah’s highness and the ascent of good speech to Him as stated in the revealed text, without asking how and without likening it to the created order.
We therefore do not say: How does it ascend? What is the exact modality of this ascent? The modality of matters of the unseen that Allah has informed us about is known only to Allah.
Likewise, it is not correct to say that merely being an accident necessarily makes ascent impossible. This alleged necessity itself requires proof, and it is contradicted by revealed texts that establish descriptions and rulings connected to deeds and words.
The claim that speech is an accident and therefore cannot ascend to Allah is an invalid doubt.
Allah’s statement:
“To Him ascends good speech”
is an explicit text affirming the ascent of good speech, and leading scholars of Ahl al-Sunnah used it as evidence for Allah’s highness and His being above His creation.
The classification of speech as an accident does not prevent it from ascending. What matters is what Allah and His Messenger have informed us of, not theological rules that make the supposed nature of accidents an obstacle to this.
What is required is to affirm what Allah has affirmed for Himself, to believe in His highness, and to affirm that good speech ascends to Him, while declaring Him free of resemblance to created beings and refraining from delving into how this occurs.
And Allah knows best.