Al-Ḥākim said: Al-Aṣamm narrated to us. I heard Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Ṣaghānī say, “I heard Fūrān, one of Imām Aḥmad’s companions, relate:

‘Al-Athram and Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Muʿayṭī asked me to secure a private sitting with Abū ʿAbd Allāh (Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal) so that I might question him about some of our brethren who draw a distinction between the lafẓ (utterance) and the spoken text itself.

‘I put the question to him and he replied, “The Qur’an—however it is employed in speech or action—is uncreated, whereas our own actions are created.”

‘I then asked, “Do you, Abū ʿAbd Allāh, count the Lafẓiyyah among the Jahmiyyah?” He said, “No. The Jahmiyyah are those who say, ‘The Qur’an is created.’”’

With this same chain Fūrān said: “Ibn Shaddād brought me a slip of paper containing several questions, one of which read, ‘My utterance of the Qur’an is uncreated.’ Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal struck that sentence out and wrote in its place, ‘The Qur’an, however it is employed, is uncreated.’”

Ṣāliḥ ibn Aḥmad reported: “I heard my father say, ‘Whoever claims that the names of Allah are created has fallen into disbelief.’”

Al-Marrūdhī said: “I heard Abū ʿAbd Allāh declare, ‘Whoever busies himself with kalām (speculative theology) will never prosper; anyone who engages in kalām is bound to lapse into Jahmism.’”

Hanbal said: “I heard Abū ʿAbd Allāh state, ‘Whoever delights in kalām will not succeed, for it ends only in bewilderment. Hold fast to the Sunnah and the hadith; beware of plunging into debate and disputation. We met people who knew nothing of this speculative speech, and the end-result of kalām is never good.’”

Imām Aḥmad left numerous statements warning against innovation (bidʿah) and its adherents, and many pronouncements upholding the Sunnah. Whoever consults the book al-Sunnah by Abū Bakr al-Khallāl will find within it abundant knowledge and a vast array of transmitted reports. I have already quoted a selection of these in the biography of Abū ʿAbd Allāh in Tārīkh al-Islām and in the book al-ʿIzzah li-l-ʿAliyy al-ʿAẓīm; lack of intent keeps me from repeating them here.

We ask Allah for guidance and for sincerity of purpose. And with Imām Aḥmad the discussion reaches its