is uncreated. These terms may also refer to both things together. It is therefore impermissible either to describe the whole as created or to deny that any of it is created.
Ibn Kullāb came to mean by “recitation” the Arabic Quran, and by “what is recited” the meaning subsisting in the divine essence. When these people say, “Recitation is distinct from what is recited, and it is created,” it is as though they mean that Allah did not speak the Arabic Quran. Rather, they hold that the Arabic Quran is created. None of the leading authorities in Sunnah and hadith said this. These people think that they agree with al-Bukhārī or others who may distinguish between recitation and what is recited, but that is not the case.
Others say, “Recitation is itself what is recited,” meaning that the very letters and sounds that Allah spoke are the sounds heard from reciters. They thus identify the voice heard from the servant with the voice of the Lord. These people say that the created being’s own voice and attribute are identical to the Creator’s attribute. They are “advocates of union and indwelling with respect to the attributes,” resembling Christians in some respects. None of the leading authorities in Sunnah said this. These people think that they agree with Ahmad, Ishāq, and others who condemn the “Lafziyyah,” but that is not the case.
For this reason, the position explicitly reported from Imam Ahmad and the leading authorities in Sunnah and hadith is that one must not say, “Our utterances of the Quran are created,” or, “They are not