of sense perception, reason, and revelation. As for the former, what is meant is that these things share something in common, just as existing things share in what is designated by “existence,” and the various types of speech share in what is designated by “speech.” All of this has been discussed at length elsewhere.

Then another group recognized the falsity of Ibn Kullāb’s position on speech, yet agreed with his fundamental premise that nothing connected with Allah’s will and power subsists in Him. They also held that the Quran is Allah’s uncreated speech. Since they recognized only two possibilities—something eternal, unconnected with Allah’s will and power, or something created and separate from Him—they were compelled to say that Allah speaks with a sound, or sounds, that are eternal and beginningless, unconnected with His will and power; and that He has always been, and will always be, characterized by those eternal, beginningless sounds inseparable from His essence.

This position is attributed to Abū al-Hasan ibn Sālim, the teacher of Abū Tālib al-Makkī—if the attribution to him is authentic. It is, however, the position of many followers of Ibn Sālim and those who agreed with them among the followers of Mālik, al-Shāfiʿī, Ahmad, and others.

The Karrāmiyyah, together with a large group among the Murjiʾah, the Shia, and others, said that Allah speaks with sounds that subsist in Him and are connected with His will and power, and that temporal occurrences connected with His will and power subsist in Him. However, they held that this comes into being after not having existed; that in pre-eternity Allah was not a speaker except in the sense of having the power to speak; and that He comes to be characterized by what occurs through His power and will after not having been so characterized. These people considered themselves to agree with the community that Allah has acts subsisting in Him which are connected with His will and power, and that, besides these, there subsist in Him volitions and speech connected with His will