Al-Lalikaʾī (1) narrated—from the report of Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Ṣūfī (2)—that ʿAbd al-Ṣamad, known as Mardawayh, told us:
“We gathered with Ismāʿīl ibn ʿUlayyah after he had retracted his former position (3). Present were myself, ʿAlī—called Fatā Hushaym—Abū al-Walīd Khalaf al-Jawharī, Abū Kanānah al-Aʿwar, and Abū Muḥammad Masrūr, the client of al-Muʿallā and a companion of Hushaym. ʿAlī, the disciple of Hushaym, said to him, ‘We would like to hear from you something we can convey to the people concerning the Quran.’ He replied, ‘The Quran is the speech of Allah; nothing that issues from Allah is created. Whoever claims that anything from Allah is created (4) has fallen into disbelief. I seek Allah’s forgiveness for what took place on my part in that gathering.’ ”
He (5) likewise transmitted through the chain of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, who said: “I was informed that…"
(1) Sharh Usool Iʿtiqad Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jamaʿah, vol. 2, p. 258.
(2) In the original edition it reads “al-Sarfī,” which is an error. The correct reading, attested in manuscripts S and T and in Sharh Usool Iʿtiqad Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jamaʿah, is al-Sūfī. In the commentary he appears as “Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Sūfī,” i.e. Abū ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAbd al-Jabbār al-Sūfī. He is praised and declared reliable by al-Daraqutnī, having studied under Yaḥyá ibn Maʿīn, Abū al-Rabīʿ al-Zahrānī and others. He died in 306 AH. See al-Baghdādī, Tārīkh Baghdād, vol. 4, pp. 82–86; Ibn Ḥajar, Lisān al-Mīzān, vol. 1, pp. 151–153.
(3) Some lapses concerning discourse on the Qurʾān were noted in Ibn ʿUlayya’s work, but he later recanted, so his status remained unchanged. As Yaḥyá ibn Maʿīn remarked, he is “trustworthy, pious and scrupulous.” Qāḍī Abū al-Ḥusayn ibn Abī Yaʿlā transmitted from Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAbd al-Jabbār that ʿAbd al-Ṣamad ibn Yazīd al-Mardawīya related: “I heard Ismāʿīl ibn ʿUlayya say, ‘The Qurʾān is the Word of God and not created.’” See Ibn Abī Yaʿlā, Ṭabaqāt al-Ḥanābila, vol. 1, p. 102; al-ʿAllāmi, al-Minhāj al-Aḥmadī, vol. 1, pp. 110–112. See above, the introduction to Ibn ʿUlayya.
(4) In the original it reads: “some things from God are created.” The reading established in manuscripts S and T and in Sharh Usool Iʿtiqad Ahl al-Sunnah differs.
(5) Abū al-Qāsim al-Lālikaʾī reports this in Sharh Usool Iʿtiqad Ahl al-Sunnah, vol. 2, pp. 260–261.