For this reason, those who came after him disagreed on this issue. The group who say, “Our utterance and recitation are uncreated,” identify themselves with him and claim that this was the later of his two positions. Alternatively, they challenge reports from him that contradict this, or interpret his words in ways he did not intend.

The group who say that recitation is created, that the revealed Quran brought down by Gabriel is created, and that Allah did not speak the letters of the Quran, claim that this is Ahmad’s position and that they agree with him. Abū al-Hasan al-Ash‘arī did this in what he reported from Ahmad, how he interpreted his words, and his declaration that he agreed with him. Likewise, Judge Abū Bakr al-Bāqillānī sought to clear his fellow adherents of contradicting the Sunnah and its imams, such as Imam Ahmad. Abū Nu‘aym al-Asbahānī did the same in his well-known book on this subject, as did Abū Dharr al-Harawī and Judge ‘Abd al-Wahhāb al-Mālikī.

(Abū Bakr al-Bayhaqī also did this in al-I‘tiqād, in his discussion of Imam Ahmad’s virtues. It was related from Ahmad that he said, “My utterance of the Quran is created.” Al-Bayhaqī interpreted Ahmad’s widely reported condemnation of anyone who said, “My utterance of the Quran is [not] created,” as meaning that he intended the outright Jahmī who claims that the Quran which was not sent down is created) (*).

Similarly, some people falsely alleged that al-Bukhārī, the imam and compiler of the Sahīh, used to say, “My utterance of the Quran is created.” They classed him among the “Lafziyyah,” until a dispute arose between him and his fellow scholars, such as Muhammad ibn Yahyā al-Dhuhlī