the Lord had never done anything or spoken anything, then brought speech and action into being without any cause whatsoever.

Another group, such as the Kullābiyyah and those who agree with them, say instead that speech is eternal in its individual reality: either a single meaning or eternal, beginningless letters and sounds, each eternally existent. They say that the Lord had never done anything or spoken by His will and power; then events began to occur through His power and will—either subsisting in His essence or separate from Him, according to those who consider this possible, or only separate from Him, according to those who do not consider it possible for such events to subsist in His essence.

Clearly, this view more closely resembles what the messengers conveyed: that Allah is the Creator of all things and that Allah created the heavens and the earth in six days. Thus, anyone who supposes that these are the only two positions people hold, and believes that the messengers speak only the truth, will suppose that this is the position of the messengers and their followers.

Yet when asked to produce transmitted evidence for this position from the messengers, he cannot do so. No one can produce a verse or hadith indicating it, either explicitly or by its apparent meaning. Indeed, he cannot even transmit it from any of the Prophet’s Companions—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—or those who followed them in righteousness. Yet they have made this the meaning of the temporal origination of the world, which is the first issue in the fundamentals of