that what is Allah’s speech is created. Ahmad and the other imams also reject the claim that any human actions or voices are uncreated, let alone eternal. Ahmad’s statements on the questions of recitation, faith, and the Quran follow a consistent pattern: he prohibited declaring without qualification that these are created, because this entails saying that some of Allah’s attributes are created and opens the door to that assertion. He likewise prohibited declaring without qualification that they are uncreated, because of the innovation and misguidance this involves.
Since Ahmad had become the imam of the Sunnah, those who came after him and affiliated themselves with the Sunnah acknowledged him as their imam. Al-Ash‘arī mentions this in his book al-Ibāna and elsewhere, saying:
“If someone says, ‘You have rejected the positions of the Jahmiyyah, the Mu‘tazilah, the Khawārij, the Rāfidah, and the Murji’ah. Tell us, then, the position you uphold and the religion you profess,’ he is told: ‘The position we uphold and the religion we profess consist in adhering to the Book of our Lord, the Sunnah of our Prophet, and what has been transmitted from the Companions and the Successors. We affirm what Abū ‘Abd Allāh Ahmad ibn Hanbal affirmed, and shun whatever contradicts his teachings. For he is the consummate imam and eminent leader through whom Allah made the truth manifest, clarified the path, and suppressed the innovations of the innovators, the deviations of those who stray, and the doubts of the doubters.’”
He then mentioned a number of doctrinal points.