According to the Jahmiyyah and the Mu‘tazilah, no demand, will, love, pleasure, anger, or anything else understood to be signified by created sounds subsists in Allah’s essence. Nor, according to them, does any imposition of obligation or duty, prohibition or restriction subsist in His essence. Thus, speech created in something other than Him would signify no meaning subsisting in His essence by which to distinguish what He created in inanimate objects from what He created in living beings.

The point made by the early generations—may Allah be pleased with them—was that Allah Himself spoke the Quran and all His other speech, and that it came down from Him, not from anyone else. As the Most High says:

“Those to whom We have given the Scripture know that it has been sent down from your Lord in truth.”

And the Most High says:

“Say, ‘The Holy Spirit has brought it down from your Lord in truth.’”

None of the early generations said that the Quran is eternal. Rather, they said that it is Allah’s speech, uncreated. They said that Allah has always spoken if He wills, whenever He wills, however He wills, and as He wills. Nor did any of them say that Allah called Moses in pre-eternity, or that Allah has always been and will always be saying, “O Adam,” “O Noah,” “O Moses,” “O Iblīs,” and similar words that He has informed us He said.

However, a group among those who followed the early generations believed that if it is uncreated, it must necessarily be eternal, since they recognized only these two possibilities. These people deny that Allah speaks by His will and power, becomes angry with the disbelievers when they disobey Him, is pleased with the believers when they obey Him, rejoices at the repentance of those who repent when they turn to Him, or called Moses when he came to the tree, and other such matters indicated by