this would have been a sound statement, for no one—so far as I know—has ever asserted that He creates anything within His very Self. The wording he actually chose, however, has been (1) one of the most hotly debated issues; among both the ḥadīth scholars and the theologians, those who affirm it are more numerous than those who deny it. Yet the consensus of the Muslim community—as far as I am aware— (2) that He does not create anything inside Himself refutes the Muʿtazilite position, but it does not demonstrate that His speech is eternal and unrelated to His will and power. This, it seems, is (3) the very argument advanced by ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Kannānī (4).
Because of this major dispute between those who say (5) “It is created or originated,” meaning that He brought it into existence outside Himself, and those who say (6) “It is eternal, independent of His will and power,” the discerning reader will realize that each faction only marshals proofs to invalidate
(1) The text between the parentheses is an addition by S and T.
(2) “ʿalā” (on) is omitted in S and T.
(3) “hiya” (it) is omitted in T.
(4) ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Kinānī argued against Bishr with two rational proofs: first, “if the speech of God (kalām Allāh) were created, and God neither created it apart from Himself nor created it as something that exists by itself, it would follow that it is created within God Himself, which is absurd”; second, “the created beings that are distinct from God were brought into existence by means not among the created entities: either by power (qudra), as Bishr acknowledged, or by His action, command, and will, as ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz stated. In both cases it follows that before the created things there were attributes that are not created. This refutes the fundamental claim of Bishr and the Jahmiyya—that God has no attributes and that everything apart from the bare Divine Essence is created—and shows that the Essence is upheld by non-created realities. This serves as a proof for those who affirm attributes (i.e., that the Qurʾān is God’s uncreated speech) directed at those who deny attributes and assert that the Qurʾān is created, since anyone who denies the attributes is compelled to assert that the Qurʾān is created.” See Ibn Taymiyya, Darʾ taʿāruḍ al-ʿaql wa-al-naql, vol. 2, p. 256; and ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Kinānī, al-ʿIlzām li-Bishr amāma al-Maʾmūn in his Kitāb al-Ḥayyida, pp. 126–131.
(5) They are the Jahmiyya, the Muʿtazilites, and their followers.
(6) They are the Ashʿarites, the Kullabiyya, and their followers.