The statements of Ahmad and the other leading Imams are neither identical with the position of one side nor with that of the other. Rather, they contain the truth affirmed by each group, and each of the two parties has affirmed the portion of truth that it perceived. For Imām Ahmad clarified that Allah has never ceased to speak whenever He wills (1); and when this is considered (2) together with His knowledge, power, and light, it is not like created things that exist apart from Him, because speech is one of His attributes. It is unlike that intrinsic attribute which is not connected to His will—for speech is linked to His will (3). Hence Ahmad said, in the narration reported by Ḥanbal (4): “Allah has never ceased to be speaking, knowing, and forgiving.” We have already cited Ibn Abbas’s words showing that the Quran indicates this.
Thus Ahmad mentioned three attributes: speaking, knowing, and forgiving. The attribute of speaking resembles knowledge in one respect and resembles forgiveness in another, so it must not be likened exclusively to either one (5). Consequently, the group that deemed it identical to knowledge in every respect, and the group that deemed it identical to forgiveness in every respect, have both fallen short in their understanding of it.
He said: “It is firmly established for me that al-Thaqafi, al-Subghi, and Yahya ibn Mansur are liars—they fabricated falsehoods about me during my lifetime. Therefore, any seeker of knowledge must not accept anything they attribute to me; and in my estimation, Ibn Abī ʿUthmān is even more mendacious, as he ascribes to me statements I never uttered.
Al-Dhahabī comments in Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalā’, vol. 14, p. 380, after quoting this passage: “These men are not liars but rather leading, reliable authorities. The Shaykh spoke only according to what was reported to him about them. May God condemn anyone who spreads calumny and whoever engages in slander.”
There are many other testimonies concerning this controversy that space forbids us from reviewing here; what we have cited suffices to make the point.
(1) In manuscripts S and T: lam yazal Allāh (“God has always”).
(2) Text in brackets is an addition from manuscript T.
(3) Text in brackets is omitted in manuscripts S and T.
(4) Al-Qāḍī Abū Yaʿlā records Imām Aḥmad’s statement in the report of Ḥanbal in his unpublished treatise Ibtāl al-Taʾwīlāt li-Akhbār al-Ṣifāt (manuscript, fol. 147). See also what the Shaykh transmits from al-Khallāl… from Ḥanbal ibn Isḥāq that Abū ʿAbd Allāh said, “God has always been knowing and speaking” (p. 359).
(5) In manuscript S: la-ākhir.