is created,’ because with this wording they confound the common folk by an analogy they would never advance elsewhere; after all, someone may reply, ‘Everything other than Allah is created.’ In addition, the negation of that phrase has never enjoyed the same fame as the well-known reports on the Beatific Vision, the Throne, and the like. Yet in spite of that, the repudiation voiced by the early generations and the leading scholars was among the strongest ever recorded—let alone against claims whose falsehood is even more obvious.

The ḥadith master, Imām Abū al-Qāsim al-Ṭabarī (1) al-Lālakā’ī—having already cited the statements of the Salaf and the imams that the Qur’an is the Speech of Allah, uncreated, as well as the reports in which they declare anyone who says otherwise to be a disbeliever—then said (2):

“These comprise five hundred and fifty individuals (3), and more besides, drawn from the Successors, their followers, and the approved imams, apart from the righteous Companions (4), scattered across the various lands through the succession of years and generations. Among them are roughly one hundred imams whose opinions people have adopted and whose schools they follow (5).

“Had I set myself the task of recording the words of the ḥadith scholars, their names would have run into the many thousands; but I have abridged the matter (6) and transmitted (7) only from these, generation after generation, and no one ever objected to them. If anyone did object, they would demand that he repent, or (8) they would order that he be killed, banished, or crucified.

“And there is no disagreement within the ummah that the first to say, ‘The Qur’an is created…’”