Accordingly, this objection does not touch those who maintain that He says, “Be,” by His power and will—a view adopted by the majority of traditionists, speculative theologians, and jurists who affirm that the Qur’an is uncreated.
On this same premise, when one says, “The letters—the letters of the alphabet—are uncreated,” the statement is correct with respect to the genus, not in the sense that a particular letter uttered by a particular person at a particular moment is itself uncreated. The class of letters is eternal, even though any given instance is not, and the same distinction applies to everything that follows from it.
The followers of the Salaf and the leading Imams declare:
Reason, in full agreement with transmitted revelation, shows that both camps are in error: (1) those who assert the eternity of the universe, its necessary coexistence with the Lord, and the negation of His attributes and acts; and (2) those who deny that any attribute, act, or speech subsists in the Lord and who, arguing that an infinite regress of events is impossible, claim that whatever attributes or acts do subsist in Him must be originated.
They add:
For this reason, these people speak of rendering the Lord inactive in the future just as they render Him inactive with respect to the past. They allege that the entire cosmos—or at least its motions—will perish, leaving the Lord without any act whatsoever, as was claimed by al-Jahm and his followers and by Abū al-Hudhayl and his followers.
Others say that Allah will annihilate the whole universe and then bring it back, asserting that the Resurrection foretold by the messengers consists in the annihilation and subsequent recreation of the cosmos. Among themselves they differ: is such annihilation rationally necessary or merely possible? And if it is possible, does revelation make it obligatory or simply permissible?
It is common knowledge that the Qur’an never speaks of a future annihilation of the universe, just as it never says that Allah created the heavens and the earth out of nothing; rather, the Exalted has informed us