Thus, when you find writers on speculative theology—such as the authors of al-Irshād and al-Mu‘tamad and their followers—mentioning only four positions on this matter and the issues connected with them, it is clear that the fifth and sixth positions never reached them, let alone the seventh. Those who follow the method of Ibn Kullāb, such as the author of al-Irshād and others like him, mention the positions of the Mu‘tazila and the Karrāmiyya and refute them. Beyond these, they mention only the position they describe as follows:

“The Hashwiyya, who profess adherence to the literal sense, held that Allah Most High’s speech is eternal and without beginning. They then claimed that it consists of letters and sounds, and asserted categorically that what is heard—the reciters’ voices and their melodic tones—is the very speech of Allah Most High. The rabble among them declared without qualification that what is heard is Allah’s voice. Exalted is Allah above what they say! This is in keeping with their ignorance.

They then said:

If Allah’s speech is written in a material substance as marks, figures, lines, and words, these very things are Allah’s eternal speech. Thus, when it was a body, it was newly originated, and then it became eternal. They further ruled that what is seen in the lines is the eternal speech, which is