I say: this is a subtle point observed by al-Aʿyan. What actually became evident from Muḥammad—meaning al-Bukhārī—was only a slight matter among the issues on which the leading scholars differed concerning discourse about the Quran, what is called “the question of the actions of the reciters.” The vast majority of the imams, the early Muslims, and the later generations are agreed that the Quran is the speech of Allah, revealed and uncreated. This is the creed by which we worship Allah, exalted is He, and they deemed anyone who opposed it an innovator.

The Jahmiyyah, the Muʿtazilah, Caliph al-Maʾmūn, the judge Aḥmad ibn Abī Duʿād, many speculative theologians, and the Rāfiḍah, however, held that the Quran—Allah’s revealed speech—is created, arguing: “Allah is the Creator of everything, and the Quran is a thing.” They also said, “Exalted is Allah above being described as One who speaks.”

Thus the ordeal over the Quran erupted, the trial grew severe, and Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal was flogged with whips so that he would utter that view—may Allah grant us safety in our religion.

Later, a faction emerged who declared, “The Quran—Allah’s speech—is revealed and uncreated, but our utterances of it are created,” meaning their articulation of it, their voices, their writing, and the like. The foremost proponent of this was Ḥusayn al-Karābīsī and those who followed him. Imam Aḥmad and the leading hadith scholars rejected this claim, and Imam Aḥmad went to great lengths in censuring them. It is firmly established that he said, “The Lafziyyah are Jahmiyyah.”

He also said, “Whoever says, ‘My utterance of the Quran is created,’ is a Jahmi; and whoever says, ‘My utterance of the Quran is uncreated,’ is an innovator,” thereby closing the door to any debate on the subject. He further stated, “Whoever says, ‘My utterance of the Quran is created,’ intending thereby the Quran itself, is a Jahmi.”

Another group—including Dāwūd al-Ẓāhirī and those who followed him—asserted that the Quran is muḥdath (brought into being). Imam Aḥmad branded them innovators, rejected their view, and remained firmly convinced that the Quran is the speech of Allah, uncreated and part of His knowledge. He declared disbelievers those who held it to be created, innovators those who said it is originated, and likewise innovators those who said, “My utterance of the Quran is uncreated.” Neither he nor the early generations ever voiced the assertion that the Quran is qadīm (without beginning); none of them ever uttered such a claim.

Therefore, our saying “qadīm” is one of the newly-coined, innovated expressions, just as our saying “muḥdath” is an innovation.

As for al-Bukhārī, he was among the great, sharp-witted imams, and he said: “I never said, ‘Our utterances of the Quran are created’; rather, it is their movements, their voices, and their actions that are created, whereas the Quran…"