Thus, whoever says, “The reciter’s voice and the scribe’s ink are Allah’s uncreated speech,” has erred. This is the distinction that Imam Ahmad explained to a man who questioned him after reciting:

“Say: He is Allah, the One.”

The man asked, “Is this Allah’s speech, uncreated?” Ahmad replied, “Yes.”

The questioner then reported that Ahmad had said, “My utterance of the Quran is uncreated.” Ahmad summoned him, rebuked him severely, and called for him to be punished and disciplined. He asked, “Did I tell you, ‘My utterance of the Quran is uncreated’?”

The man replied, “No, but when I recited, ‘Say: He is Allah, the One,’ you told me, ‘This is Allah’s speech, uncreated.’”

Ahmad said, “Then why do you attribute to me something I did not say?”

Imam Ahmad thus explained that when someone says of what he hears from those conveying and reciting the Quran, “This is Allah’s speech,” he is referring to the actual speech that Allah spoke, even though we hear it only through the reciter’s conveyance, movements, and voice. But if someone points to any attribute of a created being—his utterance, his voice, or his action—and says, “This is uncreated,” he has gone astray and erred.

What must be said, therefore, is: “The Quran is Allah’s speech, uncreated.” The Quran is in its written copies just as other speech is in written documents. It must not be said that any of the ink or paper is uncreated; rather, all paper and ink in the world are created. It is also said: “The Quran in the written copy is Allah’s speech, uncreated,” and “The Quran that Muslims recite is Allah’s speech, uncreated.”

This answer will become clearer through the discussion of “the second question,” namely, his words: