Sufyān said in his Tafsīr (1): “Everything is created, yet the Quran is not created. His speech is greater than His creation, for He only says to a thing, ‘Be,’ and it is; therefore nothing can be greater than that by which creation comes into existence, and the Quran is the speech of Allah.”

As for their claim that the early generations avoided the term “created” because it suggested fabrication, the words of the Salaf have reached us through uninterrupted mass transmission from nearly five hundred early authorities, all of them explicitly denying the sort of “creation” intended by the Jahmiyyah—namely, that it was manufactured within some bodies. They likewise (2) asked Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad about the Quran: is it Creator or created? (3) He replied, “It is neither Creator nor created; rather, it is the speech of Allah.”

A similar report is that of (4) ʿAlī—may Allah be pleased with him—when he was told, “You have appointed a created thing as arbiter.” He answered, “I did not appoint a created thing; I appointed the Quran.” There are many other instances of this nature whose enumeration would be lengthy.

The point here is that the Salaf unanimously agreed that the Quran is the speech of Allah, uncreated. The consensus reached by the Salaf does not carry the meaning asserted by the Muʿtazilah, nor that put forward by the Kullābiyyah. Yet this al-Rāzī claimed a consensus, whereas the genuine consensus of the Salaf contradicts the consensus he alleges; no one among the Salaf ever affirmed either of those two positions (5), let alone that there was unanimity. [It is enough that his sole reliance in this cardinal doctrine is a claim of consensus] (6), while the verified consensus is the very opposite. If there were in it—