Likewise, al-Bukhārī, compiler of the Sahīh, and the other imams also rejected this. At the end of the Sahīh and in The Creation of Actions, al-Bukhārī transmitted the reports concerning this matter and explained the distinction between Allah’s voice with which He speaks and the voices of His servants reciting the Quran. In agreement with Imam Ahmad and the other imams, he explained that Allah speaks with a voice, as the reports establish, and that this is not the voice of the servant reciting; that voice, rather, is the servant’s own. He expressly stated all of this in several places.
The imams of the Sunnah and hadith generally affirm this and uphold this distinction. They do not agree with those who claim that divine speech contains neither letters nor sound, nor with those who claim that the voices heard from reciters and their utterances are beginningless. Nor do they say that the Quran consists of nothing but letters and sounds.
I have recorded Imam Ahmad’s statements and explicit pronouncements, along with the statements of the imams before and after him, elsewhere, since the answer to this question does not allow for extensive elaboration. Neither Imam Ahmad nor the other imams stated that the voice with which Allah spoke was beginningless. Rather, they say, “Allah has always been One who speaks.” They may also say, “Allah has always been One who speaks whenever He wills, saying whatever He wills,” as Imam Ahmad, Ibn al-Mubārak, and others have said.
Likewise, in their time and afterward, their followers and others disputed the meaning of the Quran’s being uncreated: whether what is meant is that speech itself is beginningless