and their acknowledgment that he occupied an exalted position and the loftiest rank in knowledge—may Allah be pleased with them all. His fame spread far and wide in his own lifetime, and even in his youth his name was already renowned throughout distant lands.
Al-Bayhaqī next quoted Imām Aḥmad’s remarks on faith (īmān): that it is both word and deed, increasing and decreasing; his assertion that the Qur’an is the speech of Allah, uncreated; and his censure of anyone who says, “My pronunciation of the Qur’an is created,” while intending thereby the Qur’an itself.
He said: In that same section (1), Abū ʿImārah and Abū Jaʿfar related—our shaykh al-Sarrāj (2) informing them from Aḥmad—that he declared, “The utterance (lafẓ) is originated,” citing as proof the verse, “He utters no word but that with him is an ever-present watcher” (Qāf 50:18). He explained, “The lafẓ pertains to human speech.”
Others also reported from Aḥmad that he said, “However it is expressed, the Qur’an is uncreated, whereas our actions are created.”
I say: al-Bukhārī affirmed this meaning in his treatise Actions of the Servants and mentioned it again in the Ṣaḥīḥ, adducing the Prophet’s ﷺ saying, “Beautify the Qur’an with your voices” (3). Hence more than one of the leading scholars declared, “The voice is the reciter’s, while the speech is the Creator’s.” Al-Bayhaqī likewise confirmed this (4).
Al-Bayhaqī then cited Imām Aḥmad’s statements affirming the believers’ vision of Allah in the Hereafter, adducing as proof Suhayb the Roman’s ḥadīth on the vision (5) with its additional wording; together with Aḥmad’s words negating anthropomorphism, shunning speculative theology, and adhering to whatever has come in the Book and the Sunnah from the reports of the Prophet ﷺ and his Companions.
(1) So read in the Ṭ edition and in the Ẓā edition: “fima.”
(2) In the B and Ẓā editions: “hakāh.”
(3) Al-Bukhārī transmits it in his Kitāb Khalaq Af‘āl al-‘Ibād (pp. 33–34); Abū Dāwūd, no. 1468, in the chapter on the recommendation of tarṭīl (measured recitation); al-Nasa’ī (2/179–80), in the chapter “Beautifying the Qur’ān with the voice”; al-Dārimī (2/474); Aḥmad (4/283, 285, 296, 304); and Ibn Mājah (no. 1342), the latter authenticated by Ibn Ḥibbān and al-Ḥākim. It is a ṣaḥīḥ ḥadīth on the authority of al-Bara’ ibn ‘Āzib (ra). Al-Khaṭṭābī, commenting on the phrase “Beautify the Qur’ān with your voices,” notes that several ḥadīth authorities understood it as “Beautify your voices with the Qur’ān,” i.e. a case of syntactical inversion.
(4) In the printed edition of al-Bayḥaqī the following passage is added: “Al-Bayḥaqī narrates via Ismā‘īl ibn Muḥammad ibn Ismā‘īl al-Sulamī from Aḥmad that he said: ‘Whoever says, ‘The Qur’ān is muḥdath (a created thing),’ is a disbeliever.’ And via Abū al-Ḥasan al-Maymūnī from Aḥmad, who replied to the Jahmiyya—who cited the verse ‘No dhikr (remembrance) comes to them anew from their Lord but they listen to it while they play’ [al-Anbiyāʾ 21:2]—saying: ‘It may be that what is sent down to us (tanzīl) is the created thing, whereas the dhikr itself is not created.’ And via Ḥanbal from Aḥmad: ‘It may be that the dhikr refers to something other than the Qur’ān, namely the mention and admonition of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ to them.’”
(5) Aḥmad records it in his Musnad (4/332; 6/15), and Muslim includes it in his Ṣaḥīḥ (no. 181): “When the inhabitants of Paradise have entered Paradise, Allah, Exalted be He, will say: ‘Do you wish anything more that I should give you?’ They will reply: ‘Have You not brightened our faces? Have You not admitted us to Paradise and saved us from the Fire?’ Then He will remove the veil, and they will be given nothing they prefer over gazing at their Lord.”