view is a misguided innovator. Yet these men and others like them are, in your estimation, the leading authorities of Ahl al-Sunnah and hadith (1). They are among the most knowledgeable people concerning the teachings of the Messenger, the Companions, and the Successors [who faithfully followed them] (2), and among those who adhere to them most closely.

These men and others, such as Sufyān ibn Uyaynah, argued that the Lord’s speech is uncreated on the grounds that Allah has never created anything except by saying (“Be!”). Were “Be!” itself created, this would entail an infinite regress that precluded creation. This is the infinite regress in question (3): if (“Be!”) were created, there would be an infinite regress in the very basis of His being Creator and Agent; it is (4) thus an infinite regress in causal agency itself, which is impossible by the consensus of all rational people.

This is unlike an infinite succession of particular effects. If He can only be a Creator by saying (“Be!”), then the utterance (5) cannot be created. It is just as when one says, “He can only be a Creator through knowledge and power”: knowledge and power cannot then be created, for it would follow (6) that this created thing could not exist until after it had already existed. Indeed, since He can only be a Creator through it, it must precede (7) every created thing. If it were itself created, its precedence (8) over itself would necessarily follow. This (9) is a sound rational [and scriptural] (10) proof.