“…I do not say that Allah’s names are created, nor His knowledge; I add nothing beyond that. Should I declare him a disbeliever?”
He replied, “Such is our verdict.” Then, objecting as one who finds the very question absurd, he said, “Do we (1) really need to hesitate about this? In our view the Qur’an contains Allah’s names and is drawn from Allah’s knowledge; therefore, whoever says that it is created is, for us, a disbeliever.”

Ahmad explained that even though they (2) do not openly claim that His names and His knowledge are created, their statement necessarily entails it. We have no doubt that would make us suspend judgment, for their words imply the creation of His names and His knowledge. Consequently, Ahmad would not accept their assertion, “The Qur’an is created,” even when they try to exclude Allah’s names and knowledge from what they call “Qur’an,” because their inclusion is beyond dispute.

Similarly, when they said, “The Qur’an is created; Allah created it within a body, yet He—and not that body—is the One who speaks it,” he rejected this claim, for it is obvious that in such a case the speech would belong to that body, not to Allah—just as Allah causes a servant’s limbs (3) and other bodies (4)(5) to speak. There is a clear difference between His own speech and His causing some other body to speak.

Ahmad further remarked, “It contains Allah’s names, and it is part of Allah’s knowledge,” yet he did not say, “It contains Allah’s knowledge,” because everyone knows that the Qur’an includes the names of Allah, and no one can dispute that. As for the Qur’an’s encompassing knowledge, here disagreement arises. Those who maintain that the Qur’an is nothing but letters and sounds do not consider (6) the Qur’an to contain Allah’s knowledge. Even those who hold that kalām—information and command—is a meaning subsisting in the Divine Essence, and that the meaning of information is not knowledge and the meaning of command does not entail will, also dispute whether the very term “Qur’an” includes knowledge.