this very question, saying: (1) Their fourth proof drawn from the transmitted sources is what Abū al-Ḥusayn al-Basrī (2) related in al-Ghurar (3) from the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—who said:
“Allah has not created any heaven, earth, plain, or mountain greater than Ayat al-Kursi (Verse of the Throne).” (4)
He also narrated that the Prophet—peace be upon him—used to say in his supplication:
“O Lord of Tā Hā and Yā Sīn, O Lord of the Magnificent Quran.” (5)
He then said (6): “Nor may one claim that this clashes with the emphatic stance of the Salaf, who refrained from saying that the Quran is created, for we reply: this is to be understood (7) as their avoidance of uttering that particular expression (8), because the word (9) ‘create’ may sometimes be used to mean ‘fabricate’; hence, the narrations must be reconciled.”
I say: The response to this argument is straightforward, for there is unanimous agreement among the specialists in hadith that both of these reports are fabricated against the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—and the hadith scholars
(1) Abu Abd Allah al-Razi, Nihāyat al-ʿUqūl (manuscript), folio 132.
(2) In Nihāyat al-ʿUqūl: “Abū al-Ḥasan,” which is an error. His biography was given above (p. 314).
(3) Al-Ghurar: the discussion will return on p. 648.
(4) The sheikh, may God have mercy on him, indicated shortly thereafter that this hadith is fabricated on the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) and that it does not appear in any hadith collection. It appears in Nihāyat al-ʿUqūl with the wording: “God did not create anything in the heavens or the earth, neither on the plain nor on the mountain…”.
(5) Likewise, this hadith is fabricated on the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), as the sheikh (may God have mercy on him) later demonstrated. He clarified that neither this hadith nor the preceding one exists in any hadith collection or any other Muslim work with a known isnād.
(6) i.e., al-Razi in Nihāyat al-ʿUqūl. He notes: “An addition by the sheikh for clarification,” and the text continues seamlessly.
(7) In manuscript S: “ʿalā an.”
(8) In Nihāyat al-ʿUqūl: the omission of this term.
(9) Term “sāqiṭa” omitted from Nihāyat al-ʿUqūl.