“What do you say about someone who says, ‘The names of Allah are muḥdath (have newly come into being)?’”
He replied, “A disbeliever.”
He then said to me, “Allah is one of His own names, so whoever claims that they (1) are muḥdath has alleged that (2) Allah Himself is created—the gravest of their assertions, in his estimation (3).” He continued pronouncing them unbelievers and recited to me, “Allah, your Lord and the Lord of your earliest forefathers” (4), and he cited another verse as well.
Al-Khallāl (5) said: I heard ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal recounting his father’s words about Dāwūd al-Aṣbahānī (6) and the letter of Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā al-Naysābūrī (7). He said: “Dāwūd came to me and said, ‘Would you go in to Abū ʿAbd Allāh and inform him of my situation, and that he…’”}
= See: Ibn Abi Yaʿla, Tabaqat al-Hanabila, vol. 1, pp. 212–216; al-Dhahabi, Siyar Aʿlam al-Nubalaʾ, vol. 10, pp. 89–90; Ibn Hajar, Tahdhib al-Tahdhib, vol. 6, p. 400.
(1) In the original: annahum. This reading is confirmed by manuscripts S and T.
(2) The particle an is omitted in manuscript S.
(3) In the original: indahum. This reading is confirmed by manuscripts S and T.
(4) Quran, Sura As-Saffat, 37:126.
(5) I did not find it in Al-Sunnah by al-Khallal due to the lack of clarity of some narrations, despite my efforts to ascertain its content.
(6) Abu Sulayman Dawud ibn Khalaf al-Asbahani was a jurist known as al-Zahiri and founder of an independent school followed by many Zahiri scholars; he studied under Ishaq ibn Rahwayh, Abu Thawr, and others. He was born in 200 AH and died in 270 AH. See al-Baghdadi, Tarikh Baghdad, vol. 8, pp. 369–375; Ibn al-Jawzi, al-Muntazam, vol. 5, pp. 75–77; al-Safadi, al-Wafi bil-Wafayat, vol. 13, pp. 473–477.
(7) Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Yahya ibn Abdullah al-Dhahli al-Nisaburi was a scholar of the eastern region and an imam of hadith in Khurasan. Ibn Abi Hatim described him as reliable and truthful, an imam among the imams of the Muslims. He died in 258 AH. See Ibn Abi Hatim, al-Jarh wa al-Taʿdil, vol. 4, pt. 1, p. 125, no. 561; Ibn Abi Yaʿla, Tabaqat al-Hanabila, vol. 1, p. 327; al-Dhahabi, Siyar Aʿlam al-Nubalaʾ, vol. 12, pp. 273–285.