Introduction ... A Treatise on the Quran and the Speech of Allah by Imam Abu ʿAbd Allah Ahmad ibn Qudamah al-Maqdisi, known as al-Muwaffaq ibn Qudamah (541–620 AH) Critical edition and commentary by Dr. Yusuf ibn Muhammad In the Name of Allah, Lord of all worlds. May blessings and peace be upon the noblest of the Prophets and Messengers, our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and all his Companions. To proceed: Among the gravest issues over which this ummah has differed is the question of the Quran and the Speech of Allah, Exalted is He. The earliest generations of this community and its leading imams were upon a straight path in this matter, as in others: they believed that this Quran is the Speech of Allah, Most High, sent down from Him—glorified and exalted be He. Then a faction of the Jahmiyyah arose, putting forward a view that contradicted those who came before them, thereby distressing the Muslims and flouting their consensus. For a time these Jahmiyyah held power; they subjected the scholars of this ummah to ordeals, declaring the claim that the Quran was created to be the mark of true faith, and the refusal to make that claim a sign of its absence. They executed some scholars and imprisoned