of Satan to display the outward marks of division.

As for whether it is a verse of the Quran, one group, including Mālik, said that it is not part of the Quran except in Sūrat al-Naml. They accepted the implication that the Companions had included in the written Quran something that was not Allah’s speech, for the sake of seeking blessing. Some of Ahmad’s followers transmitted this as a position reported from him, and some may even have believed it to be his settled view.

Another group, including al-Shāfi‘ī, said that the Companions would not have written it in the written Quran, in the same script as the Quran itself, while excluding everything that was not Quran, unless it formed part of the surah. They also cited other evidence.

Most jurists of the hadith tradition, such as Ahmad, together with the discerning scholars among Abū Hanīfah’s followers, took a middle position. They said that its inclusion in the written Quran establishes that it is part of the Quran, since it is known that the Companions did not write anything in it that was not Quran. This does not, however, establish that it forms part of the surah. Rather, it is a separate verse revealed at the beginning of each surah, just as the Companions wrote it on a separate line. As Ibn ‘Abbās said:

“The boundary between surahs was not known until ‘In the name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful’ was revealed.”

According to these scholars, then, it is a verse of Allah’s Book at the beginning of every surah in which it is written, but it does not form part of those surahs. This is the position explicitly stated by Ahmad on more than one occasion, and no explicit report conveying the contrary has been found from him. It is also the position of ‘Abd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak and others. It is the most balanced and fairest of the views.