but couple it with the claim that He created speech in something other than Himself.

All the imams of the religion agree upon what the Quran and Sunnah teach and what the early generations of the Muslim community unanimously affirmed: that Allah spoke directly to Moses; that the Quran is the speech of Allah, uncreated; that the believers will see their Lord in the Hereafter, as affirmed in the mass-transmitted hadiths from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace; and that Allah possesses knowledge, power, and other such attributes.

The imams’ statements on these matters are widely known and abundantly transmitted. Indeed, when the hadith scholar Abū al-Qāsim al-Tabarī recorded the statements of the early generations and the imams concerning the fundamentals of religion in his book, Sharh Usūl al-Sunnah (Explanation of the Foundations of the Sunnah), he listed those who said, “The Quran is the speech of Allah, uncreated.” He said:

“These are five hundred and fifty people or more from among the Successors and the recognized imams, apart from the Companions, spanning different eras and successive years. They include about a hundred imams whose opinions people accepted and whose teachings they followed in their religious practice.

“Had I undertaken to transmit the statements of the scholars of hadith, their names would have numbered in the thousands. Instead, I have kept this brief, transmitting the statements of these individuals, generation after generation, without anyone objecting to them. Whoever rejected their position, they called upon him to repent, or ordered that he be killed, banished, or crucified.”

He said: “There is no disagreement within the Muslim community that the first to say that the Quran was created was Ja‘d ibn Dirham, in the 120s AH, followed by Jahm ibn Safwān. As for Ja‘d, Khālid ibn ‘Abd Allāh al-Qasrī killed him. As for Jahm, he was killed in Merv during the caliphate of Hishām ibn ‘Abd al-Malik.”