It is related from several transmitters (1) through Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Tirmidhī (2). He said: “I asked Aḥmad [ibn Ḥanbal], ‘O Abū ʿAbd Allāh, the issue of the Qur’an has become contentious. If I am questioned about it, what should I say?’
He replied, ‘Are you yourself a created being (4)?’
I said, ‘Yes.’
He continued, ‘Is everything that comes from you created (5)?’
I said, ‘Yes.’
[He then said, ‘So is not your speech something that comes from you and is therefore created?’ I said, ‘Yes.’] (6)
He said, ‘Then the speech of Allah—does it not come from Him?’
I answered, ‘Indeed.’
He said, ‘Can anything that comes from Allah—Mighty and Majestic—is He—be created (7)?!’”
Al-Khallāl (8) reports: “ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ḥanbal informed me, narrating from Ḥanbal (9): I heard Abū ʿAbd Allāh say: Allah states in His Book,
‘And if any of the polytheists seeks your protection, then grant him protection so that he may hear the word of Allah’ (10).
Gabriel heard it from Allah Most High, the Prophet heard it from Gabriel—peace be upon them both (11)—and he heard it (12)…"
(1) Al-Khallal reported: Muhammad ibn Yahya, Muhammad ibn al-Munzir, and Ahmad ibn Yahya informed me that Ahmad ibn al-Hasan al-Tirmidhi said, “I asked Ahmad….” Source: al-Musnad min Masa’il al-Imam Ahmad (The Musnad of Imam Ahmad’s Questions), transmitted by al-Khallal; manuscript, folio 160.
(2) He is Abu al-Hasan Ahmad ibn al-Hasan ibn Hunaydib al-Tirmidhi, the reliable muhaddith. Ibn Khuzaymah said of him: “He was one of the principal repositories of hadith.” He died in 250 AH. See al-Dhahabi’s Tadhkirat al-Huffaz, 2:536; and Ibn Hajar’s Tahdhib al-Tahdhib, 1:24.
(3) In the original edition: ma waqa‘ (“what occurred”), as confirmed by the S, T, and Musnad manuscripts.
(4) In the Musnad manuscript: “Alastu makhluq” (“Am I not created?”).
(5) In the Musnad: “makhluq” (“created”).
(6) The text enclosed in parentheses is an interpolation from the Musnad.
(7) In the Musnad: “… that anything originating from God is created.”
(8) al-Musnad of Abu Bakr al-Khallal; manuscript, folio 161.
(9) In the Musnad manuscript: “Hadathani Abu Hanbal, ‘He said…’.”
(10) Sura at-Tawba, verse 6.
(11) In the S and T editions: “alayhi” (“upon him”); in the Musnad: “alayhimā al-salām” (“peace be upon both”).
(12) In the S edition: “wa-sami‘a” (“and heard”).