Imam Ahmad made it clear that when someone, after hearing the reciters who convey the revelation, says, “This is the speech of Allah,” he is pointing to the very reality with which Allah spoke, even though we have only heard it (1) through the transmitter’s delivery, his movements, and his voice. But if a person points to anything belonging to the creature’s attributes—his wording, his voice (2), or his action—and then says, “This is uncreated,” he has gone astray and fallen into error.

What must be said is: “The Qur’an is the speech of Allah, uncreated.” Thus, the Qur’an that is written in the codices is like all other speech written in a codex, and it is impermissible to claim that any part of the ink or the parchment is uncreated; every sheet and every drop of ink in the world is created.

One should also say: “The Qur’an that is in the muṣḥaf is the speech of Allah, uncreated, and the Qur’an that Muslims recite is the speech of Allah, uncreated.”

This is clarified by addressing the second issue, namely the question: Is the speech of Allah composed of letters and sound, or not?

To give an unqualified answer to this—either denying it outright or affirming it outright—is a mistake, for it is one of the newly-invented innovations (3) that arose after the third century. It began when a faction among the speculative theologians concerned with the divine attributes (4) declared that the speech of Allah which He revealed to His prophets—such as the Torah, the Gospel, and the Qur’an—and that which He did not reveal, the words by which He brought creatures into existence, and the words comprising His commands and information, are nothing but a single, abstract meaning, one lone attribute.