for you have ruled (1) it to be created; and if it is indeed created, it is impermissible to denounce the one who says, “It is created,” or to reproach him (2) for that. Nor may it be said that he has turned Allah’s uncreated speech into something created, or that he has inserted Allah’s speech into a created being, or that he has made the tree itself proclaim, “Indeed, I am Allah,” and other such statements by which the early scholars described the doctrine of the Jahmiyyah. ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Mubarak (3) said: “Whoever says that the words ‘Indeed, I am Allah, there is no deity but Me’ (4) are created is a disbeliever, and no creature should utter such a claim.”
Sulaymān ibn Dāwūd al-Hāshimī (5) likewise said: “Whoever says that (6) the Qur’an is created is a disbeliever. Yet if, as they allege, the Qur’an were created, why then should Pharaoh be more deserving of everlasting torment for having said, ‘I am your Lord, the Most High’ (7)? They maintain (8) that these words are created, and that the One (9) who said, ‘Indeed, I am Allah; there is no deity but Me, so worship Me’ (10) [also] (11) made the very same claim (12)