or Coptic or another language. These matters are discussed at length elsewhere.
The point here is that disagreement arose among the people of Sunnah and hadith over “the two issues of the Quran and faith” because of ambiguous expressions and meanings liable to confusion. A group of scholars who adhered to the Sunnah, including al-Bukhārī, the compiler of al-Sahīh, Muhammad ibn Nasr al-Marwazī, and others, said, “Faith is created.” They did not mean any of Allah’s attributes by this. Rather, they meant the actions of His servants. The imams of the Muslims agreed that the actions of Allah’s servants are created. Yahyā ibn Saʿīd al-Qattān said, “I have always heard our companions say, ‘The actions of Allah’s servants are created.’”
Some people came to think that al-Bukhārī and these scholars had opposed Ahmad ibn Hanbal and other imams of the Sunnah. Al-Bukhārī suffered an ordeal because of this, and some liars even claimed that, when al-Bukhārī died, Ahmad ibn Hanbal ordered that no funeral prayer be offered for him. This is an obvious lie, for Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Bukhārī—may Allah have mercy on him—died about fifteen years after Ahmad ibn Hanbal. Ahmad ibn Hanbal—may Allah be pleased with him—died in 241 AH, whereas al-Bukhārī died in 256 AH. Ahmad ibn Hanbal loved al-Bukhārī and held him in great esteem and respect. As for the esteem in which al-Bukhārī and others like him held Imam Ahmad, this is well known.
When al-Bukhārī composed his book on the creation of the actions of Allah’s servants and included chapters on this subject at its end, he mentioned that both groups—those who say that our utterance of the Quran is created and those who say that it is uncreated—are affiliated with Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal