Abu ʿAbd Allah said:
Whenever Ibn Abī Duʿād spoke to me I would not answer him, nor even turn toward what he was saying. Yet when Abū Isḥāq addressed me, I would respond with gentleness and ease.

He went on:
Abū Isḥāq said to me, ‘If you will answer me, I shall come to you with my entire household and retainers; I shall trample upon your carpet; and I shall demean¹ your name. O Aḥmad, fear Allah regarding yourself—O Aḥmad, by Allah, by Allah!’

Abu ʿAbd Allah said:
He did not understand and did not know; he thought their position was sound, and kept saying, ‘O Aḥmad, I am only concerned for your welfare.’

So I replied, ‘Commander of the Faithful! Here is the Quran and the hadiths and reports of the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace. Whatever proof has become clear to me, that is the position I have taken.’

He said: at that point each of them began to speak.

He said: then Ibn Abī Duʿād and his supporters were left without an argument, and he swore, ‘By Him in whose hand is no god but He, if he were to agree with you it would be dearer to me than one hundred, a thousand, even one hundred thousand—he repeated the numbers many times.’

Abu ʿAbd Allah said:
Among the evidences I presented to them that day was my saying, ‘Allah, Mighty and Exalted, says: “Unquestionably, to Him belong the creation and the command” (al-Aʿrāf 7:54).’

That was because they had asked me, ‘Is not everything beneath Allah created?’ I answered, ‘There is a difference between creation and command. Whatever is below Allah is created, but the Quran—His speech—is not created.’

They responded, ‘Yet Allah, Mighty and Exalted, says: “Our only word to a thing, when We intend it, is: Be …”’