have always worshipped a Creator who is perfect in His attributes (1). Whoever alleges that Allah once existed without knowledge and then created knowledge and thereby became knowing; or that He was not a Speaker and then created speech and afterward spoke; or that He was neither hearing nor seeing and then created hearing and sight—such a person has attributed deficiency to Him. The one who says this is a disbeliever. Allah has ever been perfect in His attributes: no attribute comes into being within Him, nor does any attribute depart from Him. Before He created the universe and after He created it, He remains perfect in His attributes.

So if someone were to ask how the Lord—Blessed and Exalted—is said to speak: Does He speak with lips and a tongue, and does a uvula (2) (3) appear? Consider this: these (4) heavens and the earth—He said to them (5), “Come, whether willingly or unwillingly.” They said, “We come in willing obedience.” (6) Do they possess lips, a tongue, and uvulas?

I said: Abū Zurʿah al-Rāzī was often compared to Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal in his memorization, jurisprudence, piety, and knowledge, and Aḥmad lavished praise upon him and prayed for him. The very point Abū Zurʿah raised appears in several passages from Imām Aḥmad, as al-Khallāl recorded from Ḥanbal in his book al-Sunnah. Ḥanbal also included it in his own writings, such as Kitāb al-Sunnah and al-Miḥnah (7).