this matter there are subtleties and obscurities that require citing the relevant texts, explaining their meanings, and giving examples to clarify the reality of the matter. This is not the place for that. What is known “in general,” however, is that Imam Ahmad and the great imams who are widely held in high esteem throughout the Muslim community did not disagree on anything in this subject. Rather, some had greater knowledge of it and were more diligent in fulfilling its obligations than others. Groups of even the most eminent figures have erred in some of these matters. Imam Ahmad, together with the other imams, refuted most of the innovations concerning this subject.

The Jahmiyyah first introduced the doctrines that “the Quran is created” and that “the divine attributes are to be denied.” Those of the Successors who were alive at that time rejected these doctrines, as did the generation following the Successors and the imams after them. They declared those who professed them to be unbelievers.

Then some scholars of hadith and scholastic theology who debated the Jahmiyyah introduced the doctrine that the revealed Quran is created, that it is not Allah’s speech, or that it is neither in the written copies of the Quran nor in people’s hearts. Some of them denied that the letters of the Quran are Allah’s speech or that Allah spoke with a voice. Imam Ahmad and the imams of his time rejected this.

In opposition to them, another group of scholars of scholastic theology and hadith claimed that people’s utterances and voices are uncreated, or maintained that some human actions or attributes are uncreated, or that the Quran heard from people is like what is heard