or shift from one place to another. The Jahmi then moved on from that assertion (1) to this new claim.

Ahmad (2) replied:

“We said: In the very same way the children of Adam have created speech. By alleging that Allah’s speech is created you have likened Allah—exalted be He—to His creation. According to your view, there was once a time when Allah did not speak until He created speech; likewise, the children of Adam do not speak (3) until speech is created for them. Thus you have combined kufr (disbelief) with tashbih (anthropomorphism).” And so his discourse continues.

All of this shows that he rebuked them for claiming that Allah did not speak until He produced speech for Himself within His own being, thereby becoming a Speaker only after formerly not being one. He demonstrated that such a view necessarily entails that Allah was deficient and then became perfect, for the absence of speech is a deficiency. That is kufr, for attributing deficiency to Allah is disbelief, and it likens Him to one who was deficient and incapable of speech until speech was created for him.

For this reason he said: “Rather, we say that He has always been speaking whenever He wills.”

Thus he clarified that to be described as speaking whenever He wills is an eternal attribute; it cannot be something newly originated, for that would entail perfection (4) following deficiency and would liken Him to human beings. Likewise, denying His speech altogether likens Him to lifeless idols that are worshipped beside Allah—exalted be He—and the like. He further explained that the permanence of this attribute from eternity is just like the permanence of knowledge, power, light, and majesty: He has ever been described by them. One must not say that He existed without these attributes and only later brought them into being, for that would necessitate that He was deficient and then became complete after deficiency—far exalted is He (5) above such a notion.