it necessarily follows that knowledge and speech are truly present in him.

For this reason, the leading Imams of the Salaf who grasped the real purport of the slogan “Created” – that its meaning is that no speech subsists in Allah, but rather that the speech subsists in some other corporeal being – knew, by an inborn and undeniable instinct, that in such a case that being would be the one actually speaking, not Allah, and that Allah would in fact not be speaking at all. They therefore (1) began to describe this doctrine exactly as it is: that Allah does not speak, but only created something that speaks (2). This was, in fact, the original position of the Jahmiyya. Later (3) they alleged that the “speaker” is merely the one who brings speech into existence, even if that speech inheres in something other than himself, and they differed as to whether he should then be called a speaker literally or only figuratively – forming two opinions.

Accordingly, concerning the attribution of the name “Speaker” to Allah, exalted be He, on the basis of created speech, they advanced three views:

1. The first – which is the essence of their doctrine, and in which they are the more forthright because it lays bare their disbelief – is that Allah has never spoken and does not speak.
2. The second – in which they occupy a middling rank of hypocrisy – is that He is called “Speaker” only by way of metaphor.
3. The third – in which they are utter hypocrites – is that He is called “Speaker” in the literal sense; yet the very foundation of hypocrisy (4) rests upon lying.

For this reason they were among the most mendacious of people in calling Allah “Speaker” on the basis of speech that does not subsist in Him but is instead created elsewhere. Likewise, they lied and fabricated when they called Allah Knowing, Powerful, Willing, and Speaking while denying that knowledge, power, will, or speech subsist in Him. Thus, even though they pronounced His names, they were (5) lying in attributing them to Him, and in reality they were deviants.