such as Ahmad and his peers, al-Bukhārī and his peers, Dāwūd and his peers, Ibn al-Mubārak and his peers, Ibn Khuzaymah, ‘Uthmān ibn Sa‘īd al-Dārimī, Ibn Abī Shaybah, and others—agreed that Allah speaks by His will and power. None of them said that the Quran is eternal; the first person widely known to have said this was Ibn Kullāb. Imam Ahmad used to warn against the Kullābiyyah and instructed that al-Hārith al-Muhāsibī be shunned because he belonged to them.

It has been reported that al-Hārith abandoned Ibn Kullāb’s position concerning the Quran and used to say that Allah speaks with a voice. Among those who related this about him was al-Kalābādhī in his book al-Ta‘arruf li-Madhhab al-Tasawwuf (An Introduction to the Doctrine of Sufism).

The point here is that the claim, “If His act of creating things were not identical with those things, the act of creation would require another act of creation, and would therefore itself be created,” is untenable. Rather, the act of creation comes about through the Lord’s power and will, while the created thing comes about through the act of creation.

As for the fifth premise, namely that this leads to an infinite regress, it can be formulated in two ways:

(First: the act of creation requires another act of creation, which in turn requires another act of creation, as discussed above.

Second: suppose that it does not require another act of creation; it nevertheless requires a cause through which the act of creation comes about, even if that cause is not called an act of creation. That cause became complete only upon the occurrence of