Rather, the Quran was revealed in the language of the Arabs—indeed, in the language of Quraysh. The customary mode of address employed by Allah and His Messenger is well known, and no one may depart from it.
In any event, our purpose here is not to support the view of those who say, “The Quran is eternal.” The first person in Islam known to have made this assertion was Abū Muhammad Abd Allāh ibn Saīd ibn Kullāb, and various groups followed him in this. They then divided into two factions: one maintaining that what is eternal is a meaning subsisting in the Essence, and another maintaining that it consists of letters—or of letters and sounds.
Various groups claiming adherence to the Sunnah—from among the followers of Mālik, al-Shāfiī, Ahmad, and others—adopted each of these two views. Neither view, however, was held by any of the four imams. Rather, the four imams and all the other imams agreed that Allah’s speech was sent down and is uncreated. More than one of them expressly stated that Allah Most High is One who speaks (1) (* by His will and power. They also expressly stated that He has always spoken whenever He wills and however He wills, along with other statements transmitted from them. The early generations discussed this issue *) (2). The dispute over it, however, became widely known during the famous Inquisition, when the imams of Islam were put to the test. The one whom Allah kept steadfast during the Inquisition and raised up to champion the Sunnah was Imam Ahmad (2 ibn Hanbal—may Allah Most High have mercy on him—2) (3). His statements and those of others concerning this (4) are found in many books, although a group of the later