Fourteenth Point:
As for their statement: “He does not say that the Speech of Allah consists of letters and sound that subsist in Him; rather, it is a meaning that subsists in His Essence,” I already made clear in the concise, self-evident reply (1) that no such wording occurs in my writings—indeed, I have never uttered it at all. On the contrary, the claim of anyone who says, “The Qur’an is letters and sound subsisting in Him,” is an innovation, and likewise the claim that “it is a meaning subsisting in Him” is an innovation; none of the Salaf said either one or the other. There is nothing innovative in my words; rather, what I have stated is exactly what the Salaf unanimously affirmed: that the Qur’an is the Speech of Allah, uncreated. I have already addressed the issue of the Qur’an, letters, and sound, and the disputes and confusion that arose over it, in my response to the Damascene fatwa (3),
(1) This reading appears in all manuscripts; perhaps the clearer reading is “badhihi” (obvious). For the concise response the Shaykh composed alongside Ma‘a Istijāl al-Rasūl, see pp. 5, 9.
(2) The original reads “ma ajabt,” a reading confirmed in manuscripts S and T.
(3) I have not found a work titled al-Fatāyā al-Dimashqiyya under this name in any sources at my disposal that list the Shaykh’s writings; it may have borne another title, for many of his works have multiple names, as is the case with the present one. Alternatively, it may never have circulated widely. As Ibn ‘Abd al-Hādī notes (al-‘Uqūd al-Durriya, p. 65), the Shaykh—may Allah have mercy on him—wrote on numerous disciplines; if no one copied a given manuscript, it remained unknown and was not catalogued. Some of his students may have taken a copy without being able to reproduce it or return it, so it was lost.
Ibn ‘Abd al-Hādī also relates that the Shaykh—may Allah have mercy on him—said: “I presented the answer to a question long ago asked of me, concerning one who swore divorce by distinguishing between letter and sound, and regarding the issue of the apparent (zāhir) in the ‘arsh (Throne), and I said, ‘This is my answer.’ A group of obstinate detractors, some of whom were present in the gathering, sent me this question. When my reply reached them, it silenced them. They had assumed that, if I answered as they supposed the Ahl al-Sunnah would, it would…”