Among the widely transmitted reports is that narrated by Sufyān ibn ‘Uyaynah from ‘Amr ibn Dīnār—though some transmitters attribute it only to Sufyān, the former being the well-known version—who said:
“For seventy years, I have known our shaykhs and the people to say: ‘The Quran is Allah’s speech, uncreated. From Him it came forth, and to Him it will return.’”
‘Amr’s shaykhs were the Companions and Successors whom he met.
It is also reported from ‘Alī ibn al-Husayn Zayn al-‘Ābidīn and his son Ja‘far ibn Muhammad:
“The Quran is neither a creator nor created; rather, it is Allah’s speech.”
Similar statements are transmitted from al-Hasan al-Basrī, Ayyūb al-Sakhtiyānī, Hammād ibn Abī Sulaymān, Ibn Abī Laylā, Abū Hanīfah, Ibn Abī Dhi’b, Ibn al-Mājishūn, al-Awzā‘ī, al-Shāfi‘ī, Abū Bakr ibn ‘Ayyāsh, Hushaym, ‘Alī ibn ‘Āsim, ‘Abd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak, Abū Ishāq al-Fazārī, Wakī‘ ibn al-Jarrāh, al-Walīd ibn Muslim, ‘Abd al-Rahmān ibn Mahdī, Yahyā ibn Sa‘īd al-Qattān, Mu‘ādh ibn Mu‘ādh, Abū Yūsuf, Muhammad, Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Ishāq ibn Rāhawayh, Bishr ibn al-Hārith, Ma‘rūf al-Karkhī, Abū ‘Ubayd al-Qāsim ibn Sallām, Abū Thawr, al-Bukhārī, Muslim, Abū Zur‘ah, Abū Hātim, and countless others.
Abū al-Qāsim al-Lālakā’ī—after naming the scholars of the most virtuous generations and those who followed them, from whom he transmitted in his book that the Quran is Allah’s speech, uncreated—said:
“These are five hundred and fifty individuals from among the Successors, the followers of the Successors, and the imams