—my father said: Al-Suhaybi ʿAli ibn ʿUmar ibn ʿAsim (1) narrated to me, from ʿAli ibn ʿAsim (2), from ʿImran ibn Ḥudayr (3), from ʿIkrimah (4), who said:
Ibn ʿAbbas was attending a funeral. When the deceased had been placed in his grave, a man stood up and said, “O Allah, Lord of the Quran, forgive him.” Ibn ʿAbbas rushed toward him and said, “Quiet! (5) The Quran is from Him.”
Al-Suhaybi added in his narration: Ibn ʿAbbas then said, “The Quran is the Speech of Allah; it is not a created thing. From Him it came forth, and to Him it returns.”
When the Jahmiyya innovated these doctrines in the middle of the second century, the early generations of the ummah and its leading scholars rejected them. Their influence, however, grew at the beginning of the third century because of the backing they obtained from certain rulers through their collusion and falsehood, and the ordeal (6) unfolded.
(1) In the Sharh Usool Iʿtiqad Ahl al-Sunnah, the reading “as-Suhaibi ‘am Ali ibn Asim” is given, but I was unable to locate it.
(2) The text enclosed in parentheses is omitted in manuscripts S and T.
(3) In the original it reads “Amr ibn Judair,” which is incorrect. The correct reading—attested in manuscripts S, T, and the Sharh Usool Iʿtiqad Ahl al-Sunnah—is:
Abu Ubaydah Imran ibn Hudayr al-Sudusi al-Basri, the proof (al-hujjah) and trustworthy transmitter (al-thiqah). He narrated from Hammad ibn Zayd, Wakiʿ, and others. Ahmad ibn Hanbal said of him: “Saduq, saduq.” He died in 149 AH.
References: Siyar Aʿlam al-Nubala (al-Dhahabi), vol. 6, pp. 363-364; Tahdhib al-Tahdhib (Ibn Hajar), vol. 8, p. 125; Khulasat Tahdhib al-Kamal (Safi al-Din al-Ansari), p. 295.
(4) He is Abu ʿAbd Allah ʿIkrimah ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Qurashi, a freedman in Medina of Berber origin, mawla of Ibn Abbas; a distinguished scholar, hadith master, and Quran exegete, reliable (al-thiqah). Many eminent tabiʿin and their students narrated from him. Muḥammad ibn Nasr al-Marwazi stated: “The majority of hadith scholars agreed on accepting the hadith of ʿIkrimah, and the leading hadith authorities of our era concur.” He died in 107 AH.
References: Wafayāt al-Aʿyān (Ibn Khallikan), vol. 3, pp. 265-266; Siyar Aʿlam al-Nubala (al-Dhahabi), vol. 5, pp. 12-26; Tahdhib al-Tahdhib (Ibn Hajar), vol. 7, pp. 263-273.
(5) The interjection “mah” means “akfif” (i.e., “hold back” or “desist”).
(6) It refers to the mihnah concerning the doctrine of the Qur’an’s createdness, since al-Ma’mun had been influenced by a group of [text missing].