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What is the correct view regarding the attribution of speech in the Holy Quran and Prophetic Hadith? Should it be attributed primarily to the speaker or to the narrator, taking into consideration verses such as: "And Moses said" and "Indeed, it is the word of a noble messenger"?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Speech is attributed to its original speaker, not to the one who narrates it or transmits it from another. In application of this, the statement in the Holy Quran: "Indeed, it is the word of a noble messenger" means that it is a transmission from a messenger (whether Muhammad, peace be upon him, or Gabriel, peace be upon him), and not an creation or composition from them, because the messenger is a conveyor from someone else. If the messenger were the originator of the speech, he would not be a messenger in what he originated. The pronoun in "Indeed, it" refers to the Quran, and it is not permissible to attribute the origination of its wording and composition to it.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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