al-Kalām is interpreted in five ways:
1. al-Kalām is used in the sense of Allah's speech to His servants apart from revelation; as in the following verse:
And Allah spoke to Mūsā with [direct] speech (that is, His speech apart from revelation). (al-Nisāʾ 4:164)
Yet among them (that is, a group from the Children of Israel, namely, the seventy men chosen by Mūsā) were those who would hear the kalām (speech) of Allah, then, after having understood it, would knowingly distort it. (al-Baqara 2:75)
2. Kalāmullāh (the kalām of Allah) is used in the sense of revelation: the Qur'an; as in the following verses:
If any of the polytheists seeks your protection, then grant him protection so that he may hear the kalāmullāh (the kalām of Allah, i.e., O Muḥammad, the Qur'an which Allah has revealed to you). (al-Tawba 9:6)
They wish to alter the kalāmullāh (the kalām of Allah, i.e., the statement Allah made to His Prophet: "You will never follow after us") (al-Fatḥ 48:15)
3. The phrase kalimātullāh (the words of Allah) is used in the sense of Allah's knowledge and wondrous acts; as in the following verses:
Say: "If the sea were ink for [writing] the kalimāt of my Lord (that is, the knowledge and wondrous acts of my Lord), the sea would be exhausted before the kalimāt of my Lord (i.e., His knowledge and wondrous acts) were exhausted." (al-Kahf 18:109)
If all the trees on earth were pens and the sea [were ink], with seven more seas added to it, the kalimāt of Allah (i.e., His knowledge and wondrous acts) would not be exhausted. (Luqmān 31:27)
4. By kalām is meant the words uttered by created beings at the time of death, which the children of Adam do not hear; as in the following verses from Sūrat al-Muʾminūn:
When death comes to one of them, he says, "My Lord, return me!" When death comes, the disbeliever sees that his good deeds are few and his evil deeds are many, and before departing the world, he looks upon the Angel of Death; he wishes to be returned and to affirm what he had denied:
Finally
when
death
comes
to one
of them (that is, one of the disbelievers),
he says, "My Lord! Return me so that I may do righteous deeds in that which I left behind." (al-Muʾminūn 23:99-100)
Then the Exalted Allah, with a new address, rejects what he has said, stating:
No! It is only a word he is saying. (al-Muʾminūn 23:100)
However, the children of Adam do not hear these words. Similarly, when Pharaoh saw the Angel of Death descending at the moment of drowning, he said, "I believe that there is no deity except that in whom the Children of Israel believe, and I am of the Muslims." (Yūnus 10:90) Yet his faith at the moment of drowning, when the Angel of Death came, did not benefit him. Had he believed before the drowning began, his faith would have benefited him. The Exalted Allah says:
There is none from the People of the Scripture but that he will surely believe in him (i.e., in ʿĪsā) before his death. (al-Nisāʾ 4:159)
No one from the People of the Scripture dies without believing in ʿĪsā; but after seeing the Angel of Death and when death comes to them, this faith does not benefit them. For they are unable to utter faith as those in the world do. This is what is meant by the following command:
But repentance is not [accepted] of those who [continue to] do evil deeds until, when death comes to one of them (i.e., when one falls into the state of death and begins to see his good and evil deeds), he says, "Indeed, I have repented now," or of those who die while they are disbelievers. For them We have prepared a painful punishment. (al-Nisāʾ 4:18)
5. By the term kalām is meant the words spoken by disbelievers when they see the punishment in this world, and the words of past nations who were punished; as in the following verse:
When they saw Our punishment (i.e., Our punishment in this world), they said, "We believe in Allah and in His oneness." (al-Muʾmin 40:84)
But Allah says regarding their faith at that moment:
But never did their faith benefit them once they saw Our punishment (just as Pharaoh's faith at the moment of drowning did not benefit him). (al-Muʾmin 40:85)
When they sensed Our punishment, they began to flee from it. (al-Anbiyāʾ 21:12)
They said, "Woe to us! Indeed, we were wrongdoers." (al-Anbiyāʾ 21:14)
Thus, they acknowledged that they had wronged themselves and affirmed what the messengers had brought, asking to be returned to the world and to be granted time to do good deeds.
They will not believe in it until they see the painful punishment. It will come upon them suddenly while they are unaware. They will say, "Can we be granted respite?" (al-Shuʿarāʾ 26:201-203)
Will you believe in it only when it has occurred? Now? Yet you were impatient for it before! (Yūnus 10:51)