We said to the Jahmiyyah:
“Who will speak on the Day of Judgment, ‘Jesus, son of Mary, did you say to the people, “Take me and my mother as two gods instead of Allah”?’ (Al-Maʾidah 5:116)? Is it not Allah who will utter these words?”
They answered, “Allah will create something that will speak on His behalf, just as He created something that spoke to Moses.”
We replied, “Then who will say, ‘We shall surely question those to whom messengers were sent, and We shall surely question the messengers. Then We shall recount to them with knowledge’ (Al-Aʿrāf 7:6–7)? Is it not Allah who will do the questioning?”
They said, “All of that will simply be something that speaks on behalf of Allah.”
We responded, “You have fabricated a terrible slander against Allah. By claiming that He does not speak you have likened Him to the idols worshipped beside Allah, for idols do not speak, do not move, and do not shift from place to place.”
When the proof overwhelmed him, he finally conceded, “Indeed, Allah can speak, but His speech is created.”
Ahmad therefore observes that God Most High speaks in whatever manner He wills. In the report he adduces, it is said that “Allah spoke to Moses—peace be upon him—with the power of ten-thousand tongues”; that He possesses the power of all tongues and is even mightier than that; and that He addressed Moses only in proportion to what the prophet’s body could bear—had He spoken to him with more than that, Moses would have died. Ahmad is thus clarifying that the divine speech is governed by God’s will and power, just as Abd al-Aziz stated, and he rejects the view of those who regard speech as an eternal attribute inseparable from the essence, independent of will or power, like life itself.
Ahmad also makes plain that God has spoken and will speak, thereby refuting the Jahmiyyah. He proves that God will speak by the hadith found in both Sahih collections, transmitted from Adi, in which the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—said: “There is none of you but his Lord will speak to him.” Ahmad treats the phrase “his Lord will speak to him” as evidence that God will indeed speak, showing that for him “addressing” (taklim) necessarily entails “speaking” (takallum) and is not merely the creation of a perception in the listener.