Al-Radd ʿalā al-Jahmiyyah - Ibn Qutayba - (39)

Al-Radd ʿalā al-JahmiyyahIbn Qutayba

The poet—Umayya ibn Abī al-Ṣalt—said:
“Listen to the Speech of God and see how varied its forms;
marvel, and the very one you recite will speak to you.”

He meant: “Listen to the Speech of God,” and then he added, “it will speak to you,” that is, the one whose recitation you request will address you, as though it were actually conversing with you.

God, exalted is He, relates Abraham’s supplication: “And grant me a tongue of truth among those who come after me” (Q 26:84).

Another poet said:
“News has reached me—news I do not welcome,”
that is, I have been informed.

As for their appeal to the verb jaʿala to prove that the Qur’an is created—citing His words, “Indeed, We have made it an Arabic Qur’an” (Q 43:3)—one must know that jaʿala carries two distinct meanings: one denotes creation, the other does not.

Where it signifies creation: whenever you find the verb governing a single direct object and going no further, as in “He created the heavens and the earth, and made the darkness and the light” (Q 6:1), the sense is “created.” The same applies to “and He made from it its mate” (Q 7:189), meaning “He created from it.”
Where it does not signify creation: whenever the verb governs two direct objects, as in “You have made God a guarantor over you” (Q 16:91), meaning “you have appointed,” or in “So We made it a deterrent for those before it and after it” (Q 2:66). Likewise one might say, “So-and-so made the affair of his wife in her own hand,” i.e., he placed the matter at her disposal.

If they can show that throughout the entire Qur’an the verb jaʿala, when governing two objects, ever means “create”—and that only in the phrase about the Qur’an does it differ—then we will follow them.

The same holds for the term muḥdath (“newly revealed”): nowhere does it necessarily mean “created.” If they deny this, let them claim that God’s words, “Perhaps Allah will bring about (yuḥdith) after that a matter” (Q 65:1), mean “create,” and that His words, “so that they may become mindful, or it may bring about (yuḥdith) for them a reminder” (Q 20:113) mean “create a Qur’anic reminder for them.” Rather, the sense is that He renews for them something that had not previously occurred to them.

Likewise, “No reminder ever comes to them from their Lord but it is newly revealed (muḥdath)” (Q 21:2) means: a reminder arrives to them—something that has just come into their awareness and was not with them before.

قال الشاعر وهو أمية بن أبي الصلت: واسمع كلام الله كيف شكُوله ... فاعجب ويُلسِنك الذي تستنشد أراد اسمع كلام الله ثم قال: (ويلسنك) أي يكلمك الذي تستنشده أي كأنه يكلمك. وقال الله – Exalté soit-Il – حكاية عن إبراهيم: ﴿واجعل لي لسان صدق في الآخرين﴾ وقال الشاعر: إني أتتني لسان لا أسر بها أي أخبرت. وأما استشهادهم بالجعل على خلق القرآن في قول الله: ﴿إنا جعلناه قرآناً عربياً﴾ فإن الجعل يكون بمعنيين: أحدهما خلق، والآخر غير خلق فأما الموضع الذي يكون فيه خلقاً: فإذا رأيته متعدياً إلى مفعول واحد لا يجاوزه كقول الله: ﴿خلق السموات والأرض وجعل الظلمات والنور﴾ فهذا بمعنى خلق، وكذلك: ﴿وجعل منها زوجها﴾ أي خلق منها. وأما الموضع الذي يكون فيه غير الخلق فإذا رأيته متعدياً إلى مفعولين كقوله: ﴿وقد جعلتم الله عليكم كفيلا﴾ أي صيرتم. وكقوله: ﴿فحعلناها نكالاً لما بين يديها وما خلفها﴾ وكقول القائل (جعل فلانٌ أمر امرأته في يدها) فإن هم وجدوا في القرآن كله جعل متعديه إلا القرآن وحده ليقضوا عليه بالخلق فنحن نتابعهم، وكذلك المحدث ليس هو في موضع بمعنى مخلوق، فإن أنكروا ذلك فليقولوا في قول الله: ﴿لعل الله يحدث بعد ذلك أمراً﴾ أنه يخلق وكذلك قوله: ﴿لعلهم يتقون أو يحدث لهم ذكرا﴾ أي يحدث لهم القرآن ذكراً. والمعنى يجدد عندهم ما لم يكن. وكذلك قوله: ﴿ما يأتيهم من ذكر من ربهم محدث﴾ أي ذكر حدث عندهم لم يكن قبل ذلك.