—blessed be His name—without knowledge, power, or will. This is sheer, manifest disbelief. Allah has always possessed knowledge and speech, and has will and power over His creation. The Quran is Allah’s speech and is not created; whoever claims that it is created is a disbeliever.’”

Wakīʿ ibn al-Jarrāh said:

“Whoever claims that the Quran is created has claimed that something of Allah is created.”

He was asked, “On what basis do you say this?” He replied, “Because Allah says:

‘But the word from Me will come into effect.’

And nothing of Allah can be created.” A number of the early generations stated the same.

Ahmad ibn Hanbal said, “Allah’s speech is from Allah and is not separate from Him.” This is the meaning of the statement of the early generations: “The Quran is Allah’s speech; from Him it originated, from Him it came forth, and to Him it will return.” Likewise, in the hadith reported by Ahmad and others from Jubayr ibn Nufayr, he said that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“You will never return to Allah with anything better than that which came forth from Him.”

He meant the Quran. It has also been reported from Abū Umāmah as a saying attributed to the Prophet.

When Abū Bakr al-Siddīq heard Musaylimah’s Quran, he said to the followers of Musaylimah the Liar, “Woe to you! Where have your minds gone? This is speech that has not come forth from a god”—that is, from a Lord.

When the early generations and the imams said, “From Him it came forth, and from Him it originated,” they did not mean that it separated from His essence and came to reside in another. For when a created being speaks, his speech does not leave him