in which (1) Shaykh Abū Bakr al-Khallāl, in his Kitāb al-Sunnah, had cited reports from Imām Aḥmad, and in which his disciple Abū Bakr al-Marwazī had assembled Aḥmad’s own words together with those of the leading scholars of his era (2). All of them concurred that whoever says, “My utterance of the Qur’an is created” is a Jahmī, and that whoever says, “Uncreated,” is an innovator (3).
I remarked, “Then what of the one who claims, ‘My utterance (4) is eternal, without beginning’?—and what of the one who says, ‘My voice is uncreated’ (5)?—indeed, what of the one who asserts, ‘My voice is eternal’ (6)?!”
I next produced a written ruling I had issued long ago concerning a man who had sworn a divorce oath in the debate over ‘letter and voice,’ as well as over the question of al-ẓāhir in relation to the Throne (7), and I said, “This is my answer.”
That inquiry had originally been sent by a faction of obstinate Jahmī opponents, from among those who
(1) Copy Tif reads: “fihi alfaz Ahmad mimma dhakarahu” (it contains Imam Ahmad’s own wordings among those he cited).
(2) Tif further adds: “wa saʾir ashabihi” (and the rest of his companions).
(3) After this, Tif continues: “I said: This is exactly what al-Ashʿari transmitted in his Maqalat from the Sunnis and the hadith scholars, adding that he himself upholds it.”
(4) The words “bi-l-Quran … lafzi” are omitted in copy F.
(5) The word “azali” (eternal) is missing from K, T, and Tif; the entire clause “fa-kayfa … makhluq” (so how … created) is present in F, K, T, and Tif.
(6) Tif adds: “and Imam Ahmad’s explicit statements distinguishing between Allah’s speech uttered with a voice and the servant’s voice, as related by al-Bukhari—author of the Sahih—in his work Khalq Afʿal al-ʿIbad, and by other Sunni authorities.”
(7) Tif further adds: “I have reproduced the early answer on this question and its detailed discussion, pointing out that the blanket claim that the Quran is ‘letter and sound,’ or that it is ‘neither letter nor sound,’—both are innovations that appeared only after the third Islamic century.”