the servants and the resulting sounds of their voices and shapes traced in ink, and can also refer to the actual speech that a person reads, recites, utters, and writes, Ahmad and others prohibited unqualified negation or affirmation that would imply either that Allah’s attributes are created or that the servants’ attributes and their ink are uncreated.

Ahmad said:

“We say: The Quran is Allah’s speech, uncreated, however it is conveyed.”

That is, wherever it is recited, written, or read, whatever is in reality Allah’s speech remains His speech, and His speech is uncreated. Whatever belongs to the servants’ attributes and actions by which they read and write His speech, such as their voices and ink, is created.

Thus, whoever fails to grasp this distinction becomes confused. It is well known that the Quran is one, though many people recite it. The Quran itself does not multiply with the multitude of readers’ recitations; rather, what multiplies is that by which they recite the Quran. Whatever multiplies and comes into being in the servants is created. The Quran itself, however—its wording and meaning, which Allah spoke, which Gabriel heard from Allah and Muhammad heard from Gabriel, and which Muhammad conveyed to the people and used to warn the nations—is one Quran. As Allah Most High says:

“so that I may warn you thereby and whomever it reaches.”

It is Allah’s speech, uncreated.

This is not a case of something being one in kind but having multiple individual instances, like the humanity found in Zayd and ʿAmr. Nor is it a case of one person saying something like what another says, as Allah Most High says:

“Those before them likewise said the same as they say.”

For