Praise be to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah. To proceed:
Allah’s speech is one of His attributes. It does not depart from Him or dwell in anything other than Him. Hearing, reciting, or writing the Qur’an does not mean that Allah’s attribute passes to the listener, reader, or written copy. The speech is Allah’s speech, while the voice is the reader’s voice. Allah speaks by His will whenever He wills, and His speech is uncreated. Thus, renewal here does not mean creation, nor does it require imagining words as objects that move away or disappear so that other words may take their place.
When a person hears someone’s words and then relates them, the words are attributed to the original speaker, even though the person conveying them delivers them with his own voice and movements. This does not mean that the attribute of speech passed from the first person and came to dwell in the second.
This example clarifies how speech is attributed to its speaker and conveyed from him, without likening Allah’s attributes to the attributes of created beings.
Ibn Taymiyyah said:
“What the Salaf and the imams meant when they said, ‘It came from Him and began from Him,’ is not that it departed from His essence and came to dwell in something else.”
He then explained that when people heard the words of the Prophet ﷺ and conveyed them, the words remained attributed to him even though they delivered them with their own voices. He said:
“The speech is the speech of the Creator, and the voice is the voice of the reader.”
See: Majmū‘ al-Fatāwā (12/517).
Accordingly, when we say, “So-and-so is reciting the speech of Allah,” this does not mean that Allah’s speech departed from Him and came to dwell in the reader.
When we say that the Qur’an is in the Mushaf or preserved in someone’s heart, this does not mean that Allah’s attribute dwells in paper or in a human being. Rather, it means that His speech is written, memorized, and recited.
Al-Dhahabi reported that Muhammad ibn Aslam al-Tusi said:
“The Qur’an is the uncreated speech of Allah. Wherever it is recited and wherever it is written, it does not change, transform, or become altered.”
Al-Dhahabi explained that copying one Mushaf into a hundred Mushafs does not mean that what was written in the first copy moves from it or decreases. Likewise, a person who teaches the Qur’an to another person continues to retain it in his own heart; it does not separate from him and come to dwell in the learner.
Thus, what is written is one and the same, even though the acts of writing are many; and what is recited is one and the same, even though the readers are many. See: Al-‘Uluww (p. 192).
In the same passage, al-Dhahabi distinguishes between the Qur’an being recited and the actions of people when reciting it.
The Qur’an is the uncreated speech of Allah, whereas a person’s recitation, pronunciation, voice, and writing are among his created actions. Allah says:
“While Allah created you and that which you do.”
[Al-Saffat 37:96]
Therefore, we should not confuse the statement, “This is Allah’s speech,” with the statement, “This is the reader’s voice.” The first identifies the One whose speech it is, while the second identifies the person who performs and conveys it.
This distinction explains how the Qur’an can be heard from a reader and read from a Mushaf while remaining Allah’s speech, without the voices or writing of human beings becoming attributes of Allah.
Ibn al-Qayyim mentioned that a thing has different levels of existence: its existence externally, its conception in the mind, its expression by the tongue, and its written representation.
The distinction can be seen in something such as the sun: the sun itself is not the image of it in the mind, nor the spoken word “sun,” nor the written word.
With speech, however, its spoken existence is itself its outward manifestation. Therefore, a person may confuse the conveyed speech with the voice of the one conveying it. See: Mukhtasar al-Sawā‘iq al-Mursalah (p. 508).
This explanation is intended to remove the misconception that treats speech as though it were a physical object moving from one place to another.
Allah’s speech is uncreated. Describing it in this context as “occurring anew” means that it is renewed and connected to His will: He speaks whenever He wills, speech after speech.
Among the evidences cited in the fatwa is Allah’s statement:
“And when your Lord said to the angels, ‘Indeed, I will place upon the earth a successive authority.’”
[Al-Baqarah 2:30]
This was an address before Adam was created.
Then Allah said:
“He said, ‘O Adam, inform them of their names.’”
[Al-Baqarah 2:33]
This was an address after Adam had been created.
Allah also says:
“And when We said to the angels, ‘Prostrate before Adam.’”
[Al-Baqarah 2:34]
Thus, Allah speaks whatever He wills and speaks to whomever He wills. This does not mean that the attribute of speech is created or that He previously lacked this attribute and then acquired it.
As for the question of whether particular words remain or cease when other words are spoken, the fatwa does not provide details concerning how this occurs. Rather, it explains that the basic conception of speech as something separate that moves away from its speaker or comes to dwell in something else is an incorrect conception.
Allah’s speech does not depart from Him or dwell in the Mushaf or the reader. The Qur’an is His speech, while people’s voices and writing are among their own actions. The renewal of Allah’s speech means that it is connected to His will, not that it is created, and it does not permit speculation about a modality that has not been explained by revelation.
And Allah knows best.