Sayyid Qutb's Denial of Moses Hearing the Speech of Allah

 بِسۡمِ اللّٰہِ الرَّحۡمٰنِ الرَّحِیۡمِ

اللهم صل وسلم وبارك على سيدنا ومولانا محمد وعلى آل سيدنا محمد

The extremely misguided Sayyid Qutb, a sort of neo-Mu’tazilite, who was executed in Egypt in 1966 during the autocratic regime of Nasser, denied the fact that the great Prophet Moses على نبينا وعليه الصلوات والتسليمات heard the revealed Words of Allah with his faculty of hearing (with his ears), saying:

كلهم تلقى الوحي من الله . فما جاء بشيء من عنده . وإذا كان الله قد كلم موسى تكليما فهو لون من الوحي لا يعرف أحد كيف كان يتم . لأن القرآن - وهو المصدر الوحيد الصحيح الذي لا يرقى الشك إلى صحته - لم يفصل لنا في ذلك شيئا . فلا نعلم إلا أنه كان كلاما . ولكن ما طبيعته ؟ كيف تم ؟ بأية حاسة أو قوة كان موسى يتلقاه ؟ . . . كل ذلك غيب من الغيب لم يحدثنا عنه القرآن . وليس وراء القرآن - في هذا الباب - إلا أساطير لا تستند إلى برهان

If Moses was spoken to directly by God, this was simply one aspect of revelation and none of us knows how it happened. The Qur’ān, which is the only authentic source we have on such matters, has not given us any details. The only thing we know is that God gave this revelation in words. How and in what manner or in what sense or power Moses used to receive it we do not know. All that is part of the knowledge God has kept to Himself. If the Qur’ān does not speak to us about it, then any interpretation is simply guesswork lacking foundation. (Fi Zilal al-Quran; commenting on Surah 4:164):

Sayyid Qutb falsely claimed that the holy Quran itself does not detail or explain how Prophet Moses received the revelation of the Words of Allah as mentioned in Surah 4:164:

وَکَلَّمَ اللّٰہُ مُوۡسٰی تَکۡلِیۡمًا

And Allah spoke to Moses particularly

Due to Sayyid Qutb’s false, preconceived, theological ideas he was unwilling to acknowledge the fact that when Allah spoke to Prophet Moses, for instance at the burning bush, that he heard His Speech with his faculty of hearing, i.e., with his own ears. Yet this is confirmed elsewhere in the Quran, when Allah said to Moses:

وَاَنَا اخۡتَرۡتُکَ فَاسۡتَمِعۡ لِمَا یُوۡحٰ

I have chosen you; so listen to that which is revealed (to you)

(Surah 20:13)