any rational person, nor do we know of anyone who had professed it. Indeed, it had not even occurred to the vast majority of people until Ibn Kullāb introduced this doctrine.

What drove him to this was the following: when those speculative theologians openly proclaimed the necessary consequence of their foundational principle—namely, that the Quran is created—they did so in the early second century AH. When the scholars of the Muslim community heard this, they denounced it. Thereafter, whenever this doctrine appeared, the scholars rejected it. The statements of the early generations and the imams condemning it are well known and transmitted through numerous independent channels.

Eventually, during al-Ma’mūn’s reign, these proponents of innovated speculative theology gained influence. They drew him into their doctrine and presented him with their arguments. They said:

“Either the world is created or it is eternal. The latter is manifest unbelief, whose falsehood is known through both reason and revelation. If the world was created and brought into existence after not existing, then Allah alone is eternal. For if the world were eternal, there would necessarily be another eternal being alongside Allah. Likewise, if speech subsisted in His very being, this would entail a perpetual succession of originated events and their subsistence in the Lord. This would invalidate their widely known proof that the world came into existence. If, on the other hand, it were separate from Him, this would entail the existence of something created from eternity, which amounts to affirming the eternity of the world.”

When people were subjected to this trial and it became widely known, Allah kept certain imams of the Sunnah steadfast. The imam whom Allah kept steadfast and made a leading authority for the Sunnah was Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal. Indeed, after the trial began, the scholars came to test people by their stance toward him: whoever agreed with him was a Sunni; otherwise, he was an innovator. He remained steadfast in affirming that the Quran is the speech of Allah, uncreated.