He came to speak, in the eternity to come, with letters and sounds subsisting in His essence, as several groups maintain, including the Karrāmiyyah. Some people make statements implying that the speech which subsisted in Him successively was nothing but instances of knowledge and volition. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Rāzī inclines toward this in some of his books.

The fifth (1) is the view of those who say: He has always spoken however He wills. This is the position known from the early generations and the leading scholars of the Sunnah, such as ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, and the other adherents of hadith and the Sunnah.

Among these scholars, some say: He has always spoken and is never silent; rather, He continually speaks by His will and power. Ibn Hāmid identified this as the well-known position of Ahmad and his followers, although it has been reported that Ahmad’s statements consistently affirm that He has always spoken however He wills and as He wills.

The second view is that He speaks when He wills and is silent when He wills. Abū Bakr ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz reported this view from a group of Ahmad’s followers. Ibn Hāmid likewise inferred it as a position within the school, while stating that Ahmad’s position had never varied concerning His having always spoken however He wills and as He wills, and that He could not have always been silent and then begun to speak, as the Karrāmiyyah maintain.

These views and their implications are discussed at length elsewhere. The point here is that those who said, “Allah’s speech is uncreated,” disagreed