The second is that He has always been One who speaks, speaking whenever He wills. This is the position held by those hadith scholars who affirm this view.

Those who hold this position may say that His speech is eternal, neither newly occurring nor newly originated. By this they mean speech as a kind, since He has always spoken whenever He wills, although He utters particular speech whenever He wills. Someone who says, “Newly occurring events do not subsist in His essence,” may intend this meaning, on the basis that speech as a kind did not newly arise in how His essence is characterized.

Abū Abd Allāh ibn Hāmid said in his Usūl:

“Among the things that must be believed and affirmed is that Allah speaks; that His speech is eternal; and that He has always been One who speaks, being characterized by this at all times. His speech is eternal, not newly originated, like His knowledge and power. The school’s position may also allow that speech is an attribute of One who has always been characterized by it and who speaks whenever He wills and when He wills. We do not say that He is silent at one time and speaking at another, beginning with the origination of speech.

“The evidence establishing that He speaks in the manner we have described is the Book of Allah, the Sunnah of His Prophet, and the consensus of the people of truth, apart from the misguided faction—the Muʿtazila—and other speculative theologians, who refused to affirm that Allah speaks.”

He then mentioned some evidence from the Book and the Sunnah. After that, he said: