throughout (1) eternity past and into eternity without end, as al-Thaʿlabī transmitted this from him [through his chain of transmission] (2) in his commentary on His words:
{“Did you then think that We had created you without purpose?”}
[Surah al-Muʾminūn: 115]
This was coupled with the position (3) of Jaʿfar, all other Muslims, the adherents of other religions, and the great majority of rational people who adhere to no religion: that Allah Most High is the Creator of everything, that everything other than Him is brought into being [existing after it had not existed] (4), and that nothing in the universe is [with] (5) Allah as something coeternal with Him. *) (6)
As for Hishām ibn al-Hakam, Hishām ibn Sālim, and other leading Imāmī scholars, they used to say:
[Indeed] (7) the Quran is neither a creator nor created (7 but it is the speech of Allah 7) (8), as was stated (9) by Jaʿfar ibn Muhammad and [all] the imams of the Sunnah (10). (* But I do not know whether they held that He has always been speaking by His will, as the imams of Ahl al-Sunna hold, or
(1) N reads: “in it.”
(2) The phrase “through his chain of transmission” is omitted from N and M. Al-Tha'labi was Abū Ishāq Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Tha'labi, a Quran reciter, exegete, preacher, man of letters, and linguist. He authored the published work *'Arā'is al-Majālis*, concerning the stories of the prophets, and *al-Kashf wa-l-Bayān fī Tafsīr al-Qur'ān*, which survives in manuscript. Al-Tha'labi died in 427 AH. For his biography, see Ibn Khallikān, 1/61–62; *Inbāh al-Ruwāt*, 1/119–120; *Bughyat al-Wu'āt*, p. [0–9]54; *Mu'jam al-Udabā'*, 5/36–39; Ibn al-Athīr, *al-Lubāb*, 1/194; *Rawdāt al-Jannāt*, p. [0–9]8, which states that he died in 437 AH; and al-Ziriklī, *al-A'lām*, 1/205–206.
(3) The word “position” is omitted only from N.
(4) The text in square brackets is omitted from N and M.
(5) The word “with” is omitted from N and M.
(6) The passage between the two asterisks is omitted from A and B.
(7) The word “indeed” is omitted from A, B, N, and M.
(8) The passage marked (7–7) is omitted from A and B.
(9) A and B read: “says this.”
(10) N reads: “and the imams of the Sunnah”; M reads: “and the imams of the salaf (early Muslims).”