—commanded that evil be eliminated, and such elimination is never—under any circumstance—achieved merely by moving it from one place or direction to another. All locations and directions are alike: it is an evil here (1) just as it is an evil there (2). From this it is evident that such an act (3) does not come under the heading of genuine “change.” True change requires removing the existent form itself, and although that removal may occasionally occur by relocation, the main point is that simple motion—like the movement of the sun, the moon, and the planets—is not called “change.” This differs from what befalls the human body, such as fear, illness, hunger, and the like, for these do in fact alter its condition.

I say: In this very statement cited from Imām Aḥmad is a refutation of the two parties who differ over what Aḥmad and the rest of the early scholars meant by their declaration that the Quran is uncreated. Did they intend that it is eternal, intrinsically necessary to His Essence and independent of will and decree, as is His knowledge, or did they intend that He has never ceased speaking?

It is like the expression, “He has never ceased being Creator.” The divergence on this matter among the disciples of Imām Aḥmad was recorded by Abū Bakr ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz (4) in