and Abū Zur‘ah, Abū Hātim, and others over this matter. Personal inclinations and suspicions played a part in the affair, until he composed The Creation of Acts. In it, he included his report from Abū Qudāmah, from Yahyā ibn Sa‘īd al-Qattān, who said: “I have always heard our companions say, ‘The acts of Allah’s servants are created.’”

He also stated therein what accords with what he mentioned at the end of his Sahīh: that the Quran is Allah’s speech, uncreated, and that Allah speaks with a voice and calls out with a voice. He presented authentic hadiths and reports on this subject which this is not the place to discuss at length. He explained the distinction between the voice with which Allah calls out and the voices heard from His servants, and that the voice with which Allah spoke is not the voice heard from the reciter. He set out the evidence for this, explaining that the acts and voices of Allah’s servants are created, whereas Allah Most High, His action, and His speech are uncreated.

Concerning His words,

“No reminder comes to them anew from their Lord,”

he said that its newness is unlike that of created beings. He also cited the words of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace:

“Allah introduces whatever commands He wills, and among what He has introduced is that you must not speak during prayer.”

He related from the scholars of the early generations that the Lord’s act of creating the world is not the created thing itself; rather, His action, which subsists in Him, is uncreated. It was also related from Nu‘aym ibn Hammād al-Khuzā‘ī that action is inseparable from life, and that whoever is living must be active. He mentioned other points of this kind, demonstrating his knowledge and that of the early generations of the truth that accords with authentic transmitted reports and clear reason.