Comparative Analysis of Allāme Tabātabā i and Fakhr Rāzi's views on Divine Speech

One of the mostchallenging issues in the history of theological thoughts is the matter ofDivine speech. Muslim theologians brought up the issue of Divine attributesfirstly under the influence of the Quran and the Prophet (PBUH) tradition andsecondly to confront Christian thoughts. After a while, there became controversies about Divine Speech. Reviewing the works of Muslim theologians it can be said that for a longtime the issue of God words has been the matter of concern for many of them. Amongstthese thinkers, Fakhr Rāzi's and Allāme Tabātabā’i have deeply examined theissue. This study aims to compare and evaluate the theories they have developedin the issue. Fakhr Rāzi believes that there are meanings beyond these words inthe mind of the speaker which he calls ego words. No proof is at hand to provethis thesis. There is no ego word in affirmative sentences except in knowledgeand also there is no such incomposition sentencesother than will. All ego wordsare only in knowledge and will.Whereas; Allāme Tabātabā’i holds the view that the quiddity of Divine speech isunknown. According to him, Divine speechis theadvent of veiledDivineknowledge and His stored treasure for a group of selected ones. AllāmeTabātabā’ibelieves that the speech of any speaker is unique and specific to him. In the case of God, although His speech isinvariant;as it is unveiled inspiritual world, it canbe diverse and have got degrees according to its belongings and audience.