by His will and power. Thus, for the former—if they held that He speaks by His will, power, and choice—it followed that His speech must be created and separate from Him. For the latter—if they held that His speech is uncreated—it followed that He cannot have the power to speak, cannot speak by His will and power, and cannot speak whatever He wills.

The point here is that ‘Abd Allāh ibn Sa‘īd ibn Kullāb and his followers agreed with the early generations of the Muslim community and all other rational people that a speaker’s speech must subsist in him: what exists only separately from him cannot be his speech. As the imams said:

“Allah’s speech is from Allah; it is not separate from Him.”

They also said:

“The Quran is Allah’s speech, uncreated. From Him it originated, and to Him it will return.”

They said, “From Him it originated,” to refute the Jahmiyyah, who say that it originated from someone other than Him. Their meaning was that He Himself speaks it, as Allah Most High says:

“The revelation of the Book is from Allah, the Almighty, the All-Wise.” (al-Zumar: 1)

And He says:

“But the word from Me will come into effect.” (al-Sajdah: 13)

There are other similar passages.

Yet despite agreeing with the early generations, the imams, and the majority on this point, they held the principle that nothing subject to His power and dependent on His will can subsist in Him. On the basis of this principle, in which they agreed with the Mu‘tazilah, they then had to affirm something that was neither subject to His power nor willed by Him. They maintained that letters arranged in sequence and sounds could only be produced through power and will. They therefore affirmed a single meaning; they could not affirm multiple meanings, for fear of affirming an infinite number. They therefore had to