The Divine Word as Viewed by Abu`l-Ḥasan Ashʿarī and Muḥammad Ḥusayn Ṭabaṭabaʾī .

Divine word, kalām-i ilahī, is one of the most important, long-standing and controversial issues among Islamic religions. Muslim thinkers have offered various interpretations of this concept and the quality of God's attribution to speech. This study comparatively examines the views of Abul Ḥasan Ashʿarī and Muḥammad Ḥusayn Ṭabāṭabāʾī about the divine speech. Both consider God to be a Being of speech, but each has a different interpretation of it. Abu al-Ḥasan Ashʿarī considers the divine speech to be one of the categories of the mental speech, kalām-i nafsī, and introduces it as Divine essential speech and non-temporal attribute. Ṭabāṭabāʾī introduces a different and broader concept of the Divine speech and extends it to all matters that reveal Divine intentions. From Ṭabāṭabāʾīʾs point of view, the Divine speech has many levels and examples. Accordingly, all creation, which came into being with the existential word of "be", would be the word of God, and the Divine message that reveald to the prophets is another example of the Divine word.