As-salaamu ‘alaikum wa rahmatullaah

They say that…

 

من قال: قال الله, فقد كفر
Whoever says: ‘Qaala Allaah’, has indeed disbelieved!

For most people, this statement will seem shocking because it contradicts the belief that Allaah (‘azza wa jall) speaks.

وَ قالَ رَبّكُمُ ادْعُونِي أسْتَجِبْ لَكم 

“And your Lord says (qaala): “Call on Me; I will answer you…” [Al-Ghaafir: 60]

But, if we contemplate we soon find that this isn’t what the statement is actually saying. No, not at all! And the confusion comes because we understand the verb ‘قال’ to mean only ‘say’.

However, there is also another verb ‘قال’ which means to sleep/take a nap. Huge difference! And one way of knowing which is which (apart from looking at the context), is to take the tasreef of the fi3l, i.e. to conjugate it into its present tense & looking at its jidhr (root).

قال — يَقول  =   to say

قال — يَقِيل   =   to sleep

The top verb has the root: ق و ل while the other is from the root: ق ي ل

From the latter verb (to sleep), we derive the following:

– Qayloolah (Siesta – ‘midday nap’)
– Qaa’ilah (the time of the Qayloolah)
– Al-Qayl (the drinking at midday)

Also, a person who sleeps at midday is referred to as a Qaa’il. But wait a minute… so is a person who is saying something!
 

قال قائِلٌ مِنهم إنّي كان لي قرينٌ

“One (qaa’ilun) of them will say: “I had a close companion (on the earth)” [As-Saaffaat: 51]

Well, the only way you can really differentiate between the two is by looking at the jam3 (plural):

Plural of speaker:
قائل — قائلون

Plural of one taking a midday nap:
قائل — قيَّل | قيّال | قيْل

[It can have 3 plurals – Quyyal, Quyyaal and Qayl]

So, yes…

من قال: قال الله – فقد كفر
Whoever says: Allaah sleeps (qaala) indeed has disbelieved!

Amazing sarf (morphology) for you… Mashaa’Allaah!