…with regard to them all. See Majmuʿ al-Fatawa 12/197–198, 306–307, 373–374. Imam al-Bukhari says in Khalq Afʿal al-ʿIbad (2/70): “I heard ʿAbd Allah ibn Saʿid say, ‘I heard Yahya ibn Saʿid say: I have constantly heard our teachers affirm that the acts of the servants are created.’ Abu ʿAbd Allah (al-Bukhari) added: ‘Their movements, their voices, their acquisitions and their writing are created. As for the recited, manifest Quran that is fixed in the codices, written down, recorded and preserved in hearts—it is the speech of Allah, not a created thing.’ Because this wording contains a degree of ambiguity and could serve the innovators as a pretext for claiming that the Quran is created, Imam Ahmad warned against using either formulation. Muhammad ibn Jarir states in Sarih al-Sunnah (pp. 25–26): “Concerning the expression ‘the utterances of people when they recite the Quran,’ we know of no report from any Companion or Successor—except from the one whose word brings benefit and cure, whose example is guidance, and whose statement among us takes the place of the early imams: Abu ʿAbd Allah Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Hanbal, may Allah be pleased with him. Abu Ismaʿil al-Tirmidhi told me, ‘I heard Abu ʿAbd Allah Ahmad ibn Hanbal say, “The lafdhiyyah are Jahmiyyah, for Allah, exalted is His name, says: hatta yasmaʿa kalama Allah (until he hears the speech of Allah)—from whom would he hear it?’ I also heard a group of our companions, whose names I no longer recall, report that he used to say: ‘Whoever says, “My pronunciation of the Quran is created,” is a Jahmi; and whoever says, “It is uncreated,” is an innovator.’ We hold no view in this matter other than his, for we have no imam to follow but him. In him is sufficiency and convincing proof; he is the followed imam.” Imam Abu ʿUthman al-Sabuni comments in ʿAqidat al-Salaf (pp. 172–173) on Ahmad’s statement: “The report that Ahmad said ‘the lafdhiyyah are Jahmiyyah’ is authentically from him. He said this because Jahm and his followers openly declared the Quran to be created. Fearing the people of the sunnah in that era, they avoided stating this explicitly and used that expression instead, intending by it that ‘the Quran, in our wording, is created.’ For that reason Ahmad called them Jahmiyyah, and it is also reported from him that he said, ‘The lafdhiyyah are worse than the Jahmiyyah.’”