The Hishāmiyyah, the Karrāmiyyah, Abū Muʿādh, Zuhayr al-Atharī, and several juristic circles among the followers of the four Imams, together with the school of Dāwūd ibn ʿAlī and others, affirm a third alternative: the Qur’an is neither a created entity existing apart from God nor an individual reality that is itself beginningless, even though its genus is eternal. A thing, they argue, may be called “eternal” in the sense that it has never ceased to exist, appearing successively, one portion after another; it may also be called “eternal” in the stricter sense that its very selfsame entity has existed from pre-eternity.

When the Muʿtazilites, the Kullābiyyah, and those who followed them restricted the discussion to only two possibilities—either eternality or createdness—and held that nothing exists except an entity whose very essence has always been, or else a created thing separate from God, the debate over the Qur’an dragged on. Those who insisted on its createdness began to marshal evidence showing that the Qur’an is subject to God’s will and power, that speech necessarily entails an act performed by the Speaker, and that it therefore depends on His will and power. They cited verses indicating that He utters speech tied to particular moments, such as His words:

“And [remember] when We said to the angels, ‘Prostrate before Adam.’” (Sūrat Ṭā Hā 20:116)

and His words:

“Indeed, We have made it an Arabic Qur’an.” (Sūrat az-Zukhruf 43:3)

and His words:

“Its verses have been perfected, then set out in detail.” (Sūrat Hūd 11:1).