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Abū al-Qāsim said: “Ibn ‘Atā’ also said: ‘When Allah created the letters, He made them a secret. When He created Adam, He imparted that secret to him, but did not impart it to any of the angels. The letters flowed upon Adam’s tongue in various ways and with various kinds of knowledge. Allah thus made them forms expressing that knowledge.’”

Abū al-Qāsim said: “Ibn ‘Atā’, may Allah have mercy on him, explicitly stated that the letters are created.”

I say: He provided no chain of transmission for this account, and something like this cannot serve as proof. It is not permissible for anyone to guide Muslims concerning the foundations of their religion by statements whose transmission has not been authenticated, especially given the known abundance of lies attributed to shaykhs who are followed as examples. Such statements therefore establish neither a saying nor a doctrinal position attributable to Ibn ‘Atā’. Rather, there is already evident in this