He⦗1⦘—Imam Aḥmad⦗2⦘—said: “The angels described the speech of Allah as ‘speech’ and did not label it a creation. This is clear in⦗3⦘ His words: ‘When the dread has been lifted from their hearts, they will say, “What has your Lord said?” They will say, “The truth.”’⦗4⦘
For the angels had not heard the sound of revelation⦗5⦘ during the interval between Jesus and Muhammad—peace be upon them both—a span of six hundred years⦗6⦘. Then, when Allah—majestic is His praise—revealed to Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, the angels heard the sound of revelation, like iron striking smooth stone. They⦗7⦘ assumed it to be one of the signs of the Hour; fear seized them and they fell upon their faces in prostration. Concerning this Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, says: ‘When the dread has been lifted from their hearts…’⦗8⦘—that is, when the terror subsides and their hearts are eased, the angels raise their heads and ask one another, ‘What has your Lord said?’⦗2⦘ They do not say, ‘What has your Lord created?’ This is a clear proof for anyone whom Allah wishes to guide.”
(1) In the margin of the original it is written: “Stop at the words of Imam Ahmad.”
(2) Ar-Radd ’ala al-Jahmiyya wa al-Zanādiqa (Response to the Jahmites and the Heretics), p. 119.
(3) The text in parentheses is an insertion from the printed edition.
(4) Quran, Sūra Sabaʾ (34), verse 23.
(5) The text in parentheses is an insertion from Ar-Radd ’ala al-Jahmiyya.
(6) In Ar-Radd ’ala al-Jahmiyya: “and between them such-and-such years.” There is a disagreement concerning the interval between ʿĪsā (Jesus) and Muḥammad (peace be upon them), but the view mentioned by the Shaykh (may Allah have mercy on him) is the most probable. It is supported by a tradition narrated by al-Bukhārī on the authority of Salman al-Fārisī, who said, “The period between ʿĪsā and Muḥammad (peace be upon him) was six hundred years” (Sahih al-Bukhārī 4/270, Kitāb al-Manaqib, Bab Islām Salman). Ibn Ḥajar (may Allah have mercy on him) also records this difference in Fath al-Bārī (15/139), stating: “Ibn al-Jawzī reports agreement on what this hadith of Salman implies, adding that the divergence is transmitted: according to Qatāda it was 560 years (narrated by ʿAbd al-Razāq from Maʿmar), according to al-Kalbī it was 540 years, and some say 400 years.”
(7) In Ar-Radd ’ala al-Jahmiyya: “and they supposed.”
(8) Quran, Sūra Sabaʾ (34), verse 23.