They likewise concurred with those who asserted “it is letters and sounds” and introduced an innovative doctrine—much like others had done—stating: “The Qur’an is eternal and consists of eternal letters and sounds, intrinsically inseparable from the Divine Essence from eternity to eternity; God does not utter them by His will and power, nor does He pronounce them one after another.” They appealed to the arguments of the Kullabiyya to prove the Qur’an’s eternality and to those of the Muʿtazila to establish its letter-and-sound nature. Other opinions concerning the letter (harf) and the sound (ṣawt) branched off from this position. See Majmuʿ al-Rasāʾil wa al-Masāʾil (Ibn Taymiyya), Kitāb Madhhab al-Salaf al-Qawīm fī Taḥqīq Masʾalat Allāh al-Karīm, vol. 1, pt. 3, pp. 366–368; and al-Asmāʾ wa al-Ṣifāt (al-Bayhaqī), vol. 1, pt. 3, pp. 377–378. (1) In the original text: “ʿalā anna.” This construction yields no coherent meaning. The established reading is “s, t.” (2) These were the Karrāmiyya, who held: “He, exalted be He, speaks by His will and power in a self-subsisting speech, and He utters letters and sounds by His will and power to dissociate themselves from the innovations of both the Muʿtazila and the Kullabiyya. Yet they maintained that ‘speech became possible for Him after being impossible, without any cause arising to necessitate its possibility or His capacity to speak.’” Many theologians (ahl al-kalām), jurists, and ḥadīth scholars concurred with the Karrāmiyya on this view; however, none of the Four Imams nor their peers among the imams of the Muslims is reported to have held it. See Majmuʿ al-Rasāʾil wa al-Masāʾil (Ibn Taymiyya), Kitāb Madhhab al-Salaf al-Qawīm fī Taḥqīq Masʾalat Kalam Allāh al-Karīm, vol. 1, pt. 3, pp. 363, 455. (3) The Shaykh (may God have mercy on him) will explain who the muwāfiqūn (those aligned with the Salaf) are after approximately one page, the first of whom is ʿAbd Allāh ibn Kulāb. (4) In the original text: “al-muwāfiqīn.” The established reading is “s, t.”