People then began discussing faith. One group said, “Faith is created,” including in this what Allah had spoken concerning faith, such as the statement, “There is no deity worthy of worship except Allah.” Their position thus implied that this very statement was created and that Allah had not spoken it. Imam Ahmad declared these people innovators and said:

“The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, ‘Faith has sixty-odd branches, the highest of which is saying, “There is no deity worthy of worship except Allah.”’ Can the statement ‘There is no deity worthy of worship except Allah’ then be created?”

His meaning was that whoever declared this statement created without qualification thereby implied that Allah had not spoken it. Likewise, whoever said, “Our utterances, recitation, and reading of the Quran are created,” thereby implied that Allah had not spoken the Quran He sent down; that the revealed Quran was not Allah’s speech; that Gabriel had brought down something created, not Allah’s speech; and that Muslims were reading a created Quran that was not Allah’s speech.

Yet it is necessarily known as part of the religion of Islam that the Quran Muslims read is the speech of Allah Most High, even when it is heard from someone conveying it on His behalf. For speech may be heard from the one who speaks it, as Moses heard it without an intermediary. This is hearing in an unqualified sense, just as one may see something in an unqualified sense. Or it may be heard from someone conveying it on the speaker’s behalf, in which case it is heard in a qualified sense—just as something is seen in water or a mirror in a qualified, rather than unqualified, sense. Or, as the Most High said:

“And if any one of the polytheists seeks your protection, then grant him protection so that he may hear the words of Allah.”

Everyone addressed by the Quran understood that he would hear it in a qualified sense from the person conveying it; what was meant was not that he would hear it from Allah.

Some of these people said that one hears the reciter’s voice from Allah. Among these, in turn, are those who