al-Talamankī (1) and others. According to the discerning imams who understand the true nature of rational and transmitted proofs, this method is invalid in both revelation and reason (2).

Arguing by this method necessitated (3) denying the attributes of Allah that subsist in Him and denying His acts that subsist in Him. It also gave rise to the Jahmite innovations well known to the Salaf of the Ummah, and thereby enabled the Eternalists to assail what the messengers brought from Allah. Thus, it neither established the religion nor subdued its atheistic enemies.

It was this method that compelled those who followed it to say, “Allah did not speak; rather, His speech is created,” for, assuming its validity, it necessarily entails this doctrine.

As for the view introduced by Ibn Kullāb and his followers—that some specific aspect of His speech (4) is pre-eternal, whether a single meaning, letters, or specific letters and sounds joined to one another from pre-eternity and for all eternity—these are newly introduced doctrines that arose only after the doctrine of the createdness of the Quran had arisen. Their religious and rational errors would take long to describe. Yet those who espouse them—