it is written.”

A servant’s recitation of the Quran should not be described as created, because that would include the revealed Quran; nor should it be described as uncreated, because that would include the servants’ actions.

None of the leading scholars of the early generations ever said that the servants’ voices when reciting the Quran are eternal. Rather, they condemned those who said, “A servant’s utterance of the Quran is uncreated.”

As for someone who says that the ink is eternal, he is among the most ignorant of people and the furthest removed from the Sunnah. Allah Most High says:

“Say, ‘If the sea were ink for the words of my Lord, the sea would be exhausted before the words of my Lord were exhausted, even if We brought another like it to replenish it.’”

Thus, He states that ink is used to write His words. Likewise, whoever says, “The Quran is not in the written copy; it contains only ink and paper, or an imitation and representation of it,” is a misguided innovator. Rather, the Quran that Allah revealed to Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, is what lies between the two covers. The speech contained in the written copy—in the sense familiar to people—has a distinctive quality that sets it apart from all other things.

Likewise, whoever goes beyond the Sunnah and says that the servants’ utterances and voices are eternal is a misguided innovator, just like someone who says that Allah does not speak with letters or a voice: he too is an innovator who denies the Sunnah.

Likewise, whoever goes further and says that the ink is eternal is misguided, just like someone who says, “Allah’s speech is not contained in the written copies of the Quran.”