And he said: “‘There is no deity worthy of worship except Allah’ is part of the Quran.”
This speech must not be described as created, even when it is not part of the Quran. Nor may the Torah and the Gospel be described as created, or the divine hadiths which the Prophet narrates from his Lord, such as His saying:
“My servants, I have forbidden oppression for Myself and have made it forbidden among you, so do not oppress one another.”
Allah’s speech may be Quran or something other than Quran, but prayer is permissible and valid only with the recitation of the Quran. All of Allah’s speech is uncreated.
Once this is understood in this instance, it should also be understood in comparable cases. Letters and names that occur both in Allah’s speech and elsewhere may be described as part of Allah’s speech in one respect and as not part of His speech in another, just as they may be part of the Quran in one respect and not part of it in another. Yet Allah’s speech, whether Quran or otherwise, is uncreated, while the speech of created beings is all created. Whatever is Allah’s speech is uncreated, and whatever is the speech of anyone else is created.
Those who argue that certain attributes and actions of Allah’s servants are uncreated or eternal, because their counterparts occur in what is ascribed to Allah, His speech, and faith in Him, share a corrupt premise with those who argue that Allah’s speech and attributes are created because their counterparts may occur in what is ascribed to His servants.
An example of this is the Quran which Muslims recite: it is Allah’s speech, which they recite through their own movements and voices. The Jahmī said: “The servants’ voices and their ink are created, and this