this is an innovation. Rather, the statement that human speech is created, not pre-eternal, is expressly transmitted from the imams whose leadership in religion and the Sunnah is agreed upon. Some expressly affirmed this when discussing “matters of divine decree” and “the creation of human acts”; others when discussing “people’s recitation of the Quran and their utterance of it”; and others cited it to establish the distinction between the Creator’s speech and the speech of created beings.
Abū Bakr Ahmad ibn Hārūn al-Khallāl—who compiled Ahmad’s statements on the foundations of religion, the principles of jurisprudence, every branch of jurisprudence, manners, character, asceticism, heart-softening exhortations, hidden defects in hadith, history, and other Islamic sciences—related in his Kitāb al-Sunnah (Book of the Sunnah), in the discussion of the Lafziyyah, from Abū Bakr ibn Zanjawayh, who said:
“I heard Ahmad ibn Hanbal say: ‘Whoever says, “My utterance of the Quran is created,” is a Jahmī; and whoever says it is uncreated is an innovator who is not to be spoken to.’”
Al-Khallāl said:
“Abū Dāwūd al-Sijistānī also informed us, saying: ‘I heard Abū ‘Abd Allāh discussing the Lafziyyah and denouncing their statements. I also heard Ishāq ibn Rāhawayh mention the Lafziyyah and their innovations.’”
Al-Khallāl also said: “I heard Ibn Sadaqah say: ‘I heard Yahyā ibn Habīb ibn ‘Arabī say: “I heard a man ask Mu‘tamir ibn Sulaymān: ‘We have