—as a leader for mankind, for Abraham had already been created beforehand.

Abraham said, “My Lord, make this land secure” (1); and he said, “My Lord, make me one who establishes the prayer” (2)—he was not asking, “Create me as one who establishes the prayer” (3). Allah said, “Allah desires not to make for them any share in the Hereafter” (4)—this does not mean that He does not intend to create for them a share in the Hereafter. He said to the mother of Moses: “We shall return him to you and make him one of the messengers” (5)—that is, not “create him as one of the messengers,” for Allah had promised Moses’ mother that He would return him to her and thereafter appoint him a messenger. And He said: “that He may pile up the impure one upon another and heap them all together, then cast them into Hell” (6)—not “create them in Hell.” And He said: “We desire to show favor to those who were oppressed in the land, and to make them leaders and make them inheritors” (7). And He said: “When his Lord manifested Himself to the mountain, He made it crumble to dust” (8)—this does not mean that He created it into dust; similar examples abound in the Quran.

Thus (9), and in everything that follows the same pattern, the verb jaʿala cannot bear the sense of creating. Since the Exalted One sometimes employs jaʿala with the meaning of khalq (creating) and at other times with a meaning other than (10) creating, on what basis does the Jahmite claim that every occurrence of jaʿala must mean creating? If he replies