and eternal, like His knowledge, or that Allah has always possessed the attribute of speaking whenever He wills. There are two views on this. Al-Hārith al-Muhāsibī reported both views from the adherents of the Sunnah, as did Abū Bakr ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz from the followers of Imam Ahmad in his book al-Shāfī. Abū ʿAbd Allāh Ibn Hāmid also mentioned them in his book Usūl al-Dīn (The Foundations of Religion).

This dispute exists among the various groups adhering to the Sunnah and hadith. It rests on the underlying question of “attributes pertaining to voluntary acts.” This question is disputed among all the groups devoted to hadith, the Sunnah, jurisprudence, and Sufism, including those adherents of the four legal schools who joined them, as well as among the other sects—even among the philosophers. I have examined this thoroughly elsewhere.

This is the source of disagreement among those who agreed with the early generations that the Quran is Allah’s speech, uncreated. They differed over whether the Lord speaks by His will and power, holding two views.

Those who agreed with Ibn Kullāb said that He does not speak by His will and power; rather, His speech is inseparable from His essence, like His life. Some among them recognized that individual letters and sounds cannot be beginningless. They therefore could not say that what is beginningless consists of letters and sounds, because these can only occur in succession, and a sound does not persist for two moments, let alone be beginningless.

They therefore said that what is beginningless is a single meaning, since an infinity of meanings is impossible, as is singling out one number rather than another. Thus, they said that it is a single meaning. They also said that Allah does not speak in Arabic or Hebrew, and that the meaning of the Torah, the Gospel, the Quran, and all of Allah’s other speech is one and the same