, or else it is an attribute of deficiency, as is alleged in the case of the epileptic.
If, however, speech is a perfection, then its perpetual continuance and the fact that He has never ceased to be described with the attributes of perfection are more perfect than His supposedly becoming a Speaker after previously not being so—even were such a thing conceivable; how much more, then, when it is impossible?
Whenever an innovation appeared in the religion, the leading scholars of the Sunnah and the Community repudiated it and never endorsed it. For this reason Allah has preserved the religion of Islam, and there will always remain within the Ummah of Muhammad a rightly-guiding, rightly-guided group, manifest and victorious.
This stands in sharp contrast to the People of the Scripture. The Christians introduced innovations that contradicted the Messiah, then overpowered and persecuted anyone who clung to the Law of the Messiah, so that by the time Allah sent Muhammad no adherent to the true religion of the Messiah remained—save for a few remnants among the People of the Book, just as the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said in the sound hadith:
("Inna Allaha nazara ilā ahl al-arḍ fa-maqatahum, ʿarabahum wa-ʿajamahum, illā baqāyā min ahl al-kitāb" – "Indeed, Allah looked at the inhabitants of the earth and detested them, Arabs and non-Arabs alike, except for a remnant from the People of the Scripture.")
Later, when certain governors proclaimed that the Qur’an is created and summoned the people to that view, Allah steadied the imams of the Sunnah and the majority of the Ummah, so they did not go along with it. The foremost among the imams at that time was Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal.
That newly-introduced doctrine continued to be openly propagated for about fourteen years, while the scholars of the Ummah and the great majority of its members kept denouncing it, until there arose from among the rulers one who forbade its public expression.