Some people began stating without qualification that recitation is distinct from what is recited and that uttering the Quran is created. Some knew that they agreed with Ibn Kullāb; others knew that they differed from him; still others were unaware of either. Abū al-Hasan al-Ash‘arī and others who agreed with Ibn Kullāb’s position nevertheless agreed with Imam Ahmad and the other imams of the Sunnah in prohibiting either unqualified statement. They therefore forbade saying:

“Uttering the Quran is created,” or “Uttering the Quran is uncreated.”

Their objection was that these formulations describe the Quran as something that is, or is not, uttered. They said that the word lafz means “casting out” or “throwing,” and that such expressions should not be applied to the Quran.

Some who did not share Ibn Kullāb’s position on divine speech, such as al-Qādī Abū Ya‘lā and others like him, agreed with this reasoning. The well-known dispute over this arose between Abū Nu‘aym al-Asbahānī and Abū ‘Abd Allāh ibn Mandah. Abū Nu‘aym wrote his Refutation of the Lafziyyah and the Hulūliyyah on the subject. In it, he leaned toward the negationists who held that recitation is created, just as Ibn Mandah leaned toward those who held that it is uncreated. For whatever truth each of them related, he found support in reliably transmitted reports from the imams.

A similar dispute arose between Abū Dharr al-Harawī and Abū Nasr al-Sijzī, leading Abū Nasr al-Sijzī to write his extensive work on the subject, known as al-Ibānah (The Clarification). It contains insights, transmitted reports, and a defence of the Sunnah and its adherents that are immensely beneficial. However, he defended in it the position of those who say:

“My utterance of the Quran is uncreated,”

and criticized Ibn Qutaybah and others for what they had stated concerning