forty volumes. In those volumes he devoted three to the issue of the Qur’an and took up the claims of those who declare the letters to be pre-eternal, saying (1):
“Whoever maintains that the sīn (2) in bismi comes after the bā’, and that the mīm comes after the sīn, yet at the same time insists that this very sīn which follows the bā’ has no beginning (3), has abandoned sound reason and repudiated what is self-evident. For once a person admits that one thing occurs after another, he has already conceded that the former has a starting point. If, after that, he contends that what has a starting point nevertheless has no beginning (4), all further discussion with him is pointless.
As for those who claim that the Lord—exalted is He—spoke the letters all at once, with neither sequence nor succession among them, we say to them: The letters are unquestionably distinct sounds (5); even our opponents (6) acknowledge their distinctness. They go on to allege that Allah possesses several kinds of speech that differ and vary…"
= The refutation mentioned by the Shaykh.
Al-Baghdadi states in al-Firaq bayna al-Firaq (p. 133) that al-Baqillani composed a major work entitled Naqd Usul al-Nizam (Refutation of the Principles of al-Nizam). See also the passage that the Shaykh – may God have mercy on him – quotes from al-Baqillani’s al-Insaf (pp. 99–101). I have reproduced this excerpt from the manuscript of Judge Abu Bakr Abu Abdullah al-Qurtubi’s al-Asna fi Asma’ Allah al-Husna wa Sifatihi al-Ula, folio 245, where he writes:
"The judge says in his book al-Naqd – which spans forty volumes; he treats the issue of the Quran in three volumes, and he addresses those who affirm the pre-eternity of the letters in three lines, saying: ‘Whoever claims….’"
(1) In the margin of manuscript S: “Ibn al-Baqillani’s reply to the Iqtraniyyah.”
(2) In manuscript S: the term S is omitted from al-Asna.
(3) In the original: li-awwal. This reading is confirmed by S, T and al-Asna.
(4) In al-Asna: idda’a la awwal bima lahu awwal.
(5) In al-Asna: usul.
(6) In S, T: khasan.