He replied: ‘These are Jahmīs; their sole aim is to deny Allah’s attributes.’ He then mentioned the hadith of Ibn Mas‘ūd.” Several others likewise transmitted this from Ahmad.
Similarly, al-Bukhārī devoted a chapter in his Sahīh to Allah’s words:
“Until, when fear is removed from their hearts”
In it, he set out the evidence that Allah speaks with sound. The same position is affirmed by the many imams of hadith who wrote works on the Sunnah, and by the leading Sufis, such as al-Hārith al-Muhāsibī, Abū al-Hasan ibn Sālim, and others.
Likewise, jurists from all the schools—Mālikīs, Shāfi‘īs, Hanafīs, and Hanbalīs—who wrote on the principles of jurisprudence establish that command, prohibition, declarative statement, and generality have designated linguistic forms that, in themselves, signify command, prohibition, declarative statement, and generality. They mention the opposing Ash‘arī view that commands have no designated form.
Those who affirm sound include the Mu‘tazilah, who maintain that the Quran is created. They say that His speech is a sound subsisting in something other than Him. They also include the Karrāmiyyah and groups of hadith scholars, Hanbalīs and others, who say: “He speaks with a sound subsisting in Him, but that sound is not eternal.”
Another group consists of Sunni speculative theologians, Hanbalīs and others, who say: “He speaks with an eternal sound subsisting in Him.”
Yet another group consists of Hanafī and other jurists, who say: “He addresses