The Prophets
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE[21:4]
Say: "My Sustainer knows whatever is spoken in heaven and on earth; and He alone is all-hearing, all-knowing."

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* v.4 : According to the earliest scholars of Medina and Basrah, as well as some of the scholars of Kūfah, this word is spelt qul, as an imperative (“Say”), whereas some of the Meccan scholars and the majority of those of Kūfah read it as qāla (“He [i.e., the Prophet] said”). In the earliest copies of the Qur’ān the spelling was apparently confined, in this instance, to the consonants q-l: hence the possibility of reading it either as qul or as qāla. However, as Tabarī points out, both these readings have the same meaning and are, therefore, equally valid, “for, when God bade Muhammad to say this, he [undoubtedly] said it....Hence, in whichever way this word is read, the reader is correct (musīb as-sawāb) in his reading.” Among the classical commentators, Baghawī and Baydāwī explicitly use the spelling qul, while Zamakhsharī’s short remark that “it has also been read as qāla” seems to indicate his own preference for the imperative qul.