by placing it in the narration (1): namely, He is the One who has so ruled for Himself—no one else. Whoever claims that it is created must then concede that some other being is the one who made Him so and conferred those qualities upon Him.

Fourth: Ibn ʿAbbās mentioned this while elucidating the meaning of His words, “And Allah has always been Forgiving, Merciful,” “Mighty, Wise,” and “All-Hearing, All-Seeing.” His aim was to clarify the wisdom in employing the verb kāna (“has always been”) in such contexts, and he stated that it is He who named Himself with those names, and no one else attributed them to Him (2).

The relevance of this reply is that if someone else had bestowed those names upon Him, they would be created through the creation of that other entity; consequently, it would not be proper to report of Him that He “has always been” thus. But when He is the One who named Himself, it is fitting to say that He has always been and still is so, for He Himself has never ceased to exist—glorified and exalted is He. This distinction is valid only if the names are uncreated, so that one may rightly say: since He Himself named Himself with them, He has always been thus.

Hence Imām Aḥmad observed that the statement “The Qur’an is created” necessarily implies that Allah’s knowledge is created and that His names are created, for the obviousness to people that these two are uncreated is even clearer than the obviousness of the error entailed by merely uttering that they are created. Had “Qur’an” denoted nothing more than letters and sounds, Imām Aḥmad’s proof would not stand, for the creation of letters alone does not entail the creation of knowledge. Likewise, those who hold that the Qur’an is created only mean that the letters and vocalizations occurring within certain bodies are created, for in their view that is the Qur’an; knowledge, as they see it, is not included in the term “Qur’an” (3)(4).

Thus, when al-Athram said to him, “If someone says, ‘The Qur’an is created,’ and says:”