However, at certain times one scholar may clarify a point that another does not, simply because the need of the moment requires it.

Thus, when a scholar is confronted by people who say, “This is not the speech of Allah”—as Imam Ahmad was—he will expend most of his refutation on those who declare, “This is created,” more than on those who say, “My utterance is created.”

Conversely, when a scholar is tried by those who insist that some of the servants’ attributes are themselves uncreated—as happened to al-Bukhari, the author of the Ṣaḥīḥ—he will focus the bulk of his censure on those who hold that view. At the same time, Ahmad, al-Bukhari, and others explicitly affirmed that both camps are mistaken.