This was the doctrine of a party among the scholastic theologians, ḥadīth scholars, and jurists; al-Ashʿarī records it in his “Maqālāt,” attributing it to a group who upheld it, and some jurists from the schools of Mālik, Aḥmad, al-Shāfiʿī, and others agreed with them.

The great majority, however, repudiated this view, saying that it is patently at odds with both reason and revelation. God, Exalted is He, says:

“His command, when He wills a thing, is only to say to it, ‘Be,’ and it is.” (Yā Sīn 82)

He also says—using a past-tense verb while instructing us to recall a specific moment:

“And [remember] when your Lord said to the angels, ‘I am appointing on the earth a vicegerent.’” (al-Baqarah 30)

What is fixed to a particular time cannot be eternal and without beginning.

The Exalted further says:

“Indeed, the likeness of Jesus in God’s sight is like that of Adam: He created him from dust, then said to him, ‘Be,’ and he was.” (Āl ʿImrān 59)

And He says:

“When he came to it, a call rang out: ‘Moses!’” (Ṭā Hā 11)

Verses of this nature are abundant in the Qur’an.

They added that voice, like motion, exists part after part; it is impossible for its beginning to coincide with its end or for all of it to subsist at one instant. It comes into being successively. Nonetheless, the majority of those who hold this position affirm: this Qur’an is the Speech of God, yet the sounds we hear when it is recited are not God’s own voice; His voice is other than that. Rather, what we hear is His Speech, made audible through the reciter’s voice, as He, the Exalted, says: