for this is a denial of sensory evidence. The speaker knows that the letters of the alphabet existed as types before he himself existed. As for the particular sound itself in which segmentation occurs, or the particular arrangement of that sound, it is known that this individual instance did not exist before the speaker. What is transmitted from Imam Ahmad and other leading authorities of the Sunnah accords with this position.

For this reason, they rejected the claim that any letter of the alphabet is created. They also denounced the statement:

“When Allah created the letters, they prostrated to Him except alif, which said, ‘I shall not prostrate until I am commanded.’”

This was despite the fact that the story had been reported to Ahmad from Sarī al-Saqatī, who related it from Bakr ibn Khunays, the devout worshipper. Those teachers intended only to explain that a servant who acts only in accordance with divine command and revealed law is more perfect than one who worships Allah without revealed authorization. For many worshippers worship Allah in ways their hearts desire, even though they have not been commanded to do so. Those teachers therefore meant that someone who worships Allah according to His command, doing nothing until commanded to do it, is better than someone who worships Him in ways he has not been commanded to follow.

They cited this Israelite story in support of that point, even though it has no chain of transmission and no ruling can be established on its basis. Nevertheless, there is no harm in mentioning Israelite reports as illustrations of what is already known to be true. By this they meant written letters, since alif stands upright whereas the other letters do not. Yet this is a matter of convention, and non-Arabic scripts do not resemble Arabic script. Those teachers did not mean that the actual spoken letters which form Allah’s most beautiful names and His revealed Books are created and separate from Allah;