this is impossible? For it is impossible for the Lord to become capable after not having been so, or for speaking and acting to become possible after having been impossible. This has been explained at length elsewhere.

The “Lafziyyah khalqiyyah” among the scholars of hadith—those who held utterances to be created—used to say: “We say that our utterances of the Quran are created, that recitation is distinct from what is recited, and that reading is distinct from what is read.” The “affirming Lafziyyah” say: “We say that our utterances of the Quran are uncreated, that recitation is itself what is recited, and that reading is itself what is read.”

As for the position explicitly reported from Imam Ahmad, his leading followers, and the other leading authorities in Sunnah and hadith, they say neither that these utterances are created nor that they are uncreated. Nor do they say without qualification that recitation is itself what is recited, or that it is distinct from what is recited, just as they do not say that a name is itself the thing named or that it is distinct from the thing named.

For “recitation” and “reading,” like “utterance,” may be used as verbal nouns in the sequences “recited, recites, recitation,” “read, reads, reading,” and “uttered, utters, utterance.” What the verbal noun denotes is the servant’s action and movements. What is meant by the terms recitation, reading, and utterance in this sense is created; it is not the speech that is heard, which is what is recited.

“Utterance,” however, may mean what is uttered; “recitation,” what is recited; and “reading,” what is read. This is the speech that is heard, and that is what is recited. It is well known that the recited Quran, which the servant recites and utters