Part One
The creed of Ahl al-Sunnah wa-l-Jamāʿah in summary
First Issue: The Words Kalām (كَلَام) and Nidāʾ (نِدَاء) in the Language
Kalām in the speech of the Arabs is the wording and the meaning together. They do not call a thought in the soul speech unless they restrict it, as Allah said: “And they say within themselves (fī anfusihim).” The Prophet ﷺ said: “Allah has pardoned my nation what it says to itself, so long as it does not act on it or speak it.” He made speaking something other than what the soul says to itself. So the Ashʿarī claim that the real speech of Allah is a single meaning in the soul, without letters and without sound, is a claim against the language in which the Qurʾān was revealed.
Nidāʾ, calling, in the language is speech in a raised voice, heard from afar, and munājāh is speech in a low voice to one who is near. Allah said of Mūsā: “And We called him from the right side of the Mount and brought him near, in intimate converse.” He mentioned both the call and the intimate converse. Neither can be understood of a meaning without sound, and the Arab who heard the verse understood from it only that Mūsā heard the voice of his Lord.
Al-Jawharī said in al-Ṣiḥāḥ, under the root nūn–dāl–wāw:
Al-nidāʾ is the voice (al-ṣawt); it is also said al-nudāʾ, with ḍammah, like al-duʿāʾ and al-rughāʾ. Nādāhu, munādātan wa-nidāʾan, means: he cried out to him.
al-Jawharī, al-Ṣiḥāḥ, 6/2505 (root n-d-w)
Source, chain and authenticity
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[نخا] النَخْوَةُ: الكِبْرُ والعظمة. يقال: انْتَخى فلانٌ علينا، أي افتخر وتعظم.
[ندا] النِداءُ: الصوت، وقد يضم مثل الدُعاءُ والرُغاءُ. وناداهُ مُناداةً ونداء، أي صاح به.
And al-Rāghib said in al-Mufradāt fī Gharīb al-Qurʾān:
Al-nidāʾ is the raising of the voice and its being made manifest; and the word is sometimes said of the bare voice.
al-Rāghib al-Aṣfahānī, al-Mufradāt fī Gharīb al-Qurʾān, p. 796
Source, chain and authenticity
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ما بِالدَّارِ نَاخِرٌ «١» .
نخل
النَّخْلُ معروف، وقد يُستعمَل في الواحد والجمع. قال تعالى: كَأَنَّهُمْ أَعْجازُ نَخْلٍ مُنْقَعِرٍ
[القمر/ ٢٠] وقال: كَأَنَّهُمْ أَعْجازُ نَخْلٍ خاوِيَةٍ [الحاقة/ ٧] ، وَنَخْلٍ طَلْعُها هَضِيمٌ
[الشعراء/ ١٤٨] ، وَالنَّخْلَ باسِقاتٍ لَها طَلْعٌ نَضِيدٌ
[ق/ ١٠] وجمعه: نَخِيلٌ، قال: وَمِنْ ثَمَراتِ النَّخِيلِ
[النحل/ ٦٧] والنَّخْلُ نَخْل الدّقيق بِالْمُنْخُل، وانْتَخَلْتُ الشيءَ: انتقيتُه فأخذْتُ خِيارَهُ.
ندد
نَدِيدُ الشيءِ: مُشارِكه في جَوْهَره، وذلك ضربٌ من المُماثلة، فإنّ المِثْل يقال في أيِّ مشاركةٍ كانتْ، فكلّ نِدٍّ مثلٌ، وليس كلّ مثلٍ نِدّاً، ويقال: نِدُّهُ ونَدِيدُهُ ونَدِيدَتُهُ، قال تعالى:
فَلا تَجْعَلُوا لِلَّهِ أَنْداداً
[البقرة/ ٢٢] ، وَمِنَ النَّاسِ مَنْ يَتَّخِذُ مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ أَنْداداً [البقرة/ ١٦٥] ، وَتَجْعَلُونَ لَهُ أَنْداداً [فصلت/ ٩] وقرئ: (يوم التَّنَادِّ) [غافر/ ٣٢] «٢» أي: يَنِدُّ بعضُهم من بعض. نحو: يَوْمَ يَفِرُّ الْمَرْءُ مِنْ أَخِيهِ [عبس/ ٣٤] .
ندم
النَّدْمُ والنَّدَامَةُ: التَّحَسُّر من تغيُّر رأي في أمر فَائِتٍ. قال تعالى: فَأَصْبَحَ مِنَ النَّادِمِينَ
[المائدة/ ٣١] وقال: عَمَّا قَلِيلٍ لَيُصْبِحُنَّ نادِمِينَ
[المؤمنون/ ٤٠] وأصله من مُنَادَمَةِ الحزن له. والنَّدِيمُ والنَّدْمَانُ والْمُنَادِمُ يَتَقَارَبُ.
قال بعضهم: المُنْدَامَةُ والمُدَاوَمَةُ يتقاربان. وقال بعضهم: الشَّرِيبَانِ سُمِّيَا نَدِيمَيْنِ لما يتعقّبُ أحوالَهما من النَّدَامَةِ على فعليهما.
ندا
النِّدَاءُ: رفْعُ الصَّوت وظُهُورُهُ، وقد يقال ذلك للصَّوْت المجرَّد، وإيّاه قَصَدَ بقوله: وَمَثَلُ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا كَمَثَلِ الَّذِي يَنْعِقُ بِما لا يَسْمَعُ إِلَّا دُعاءً وَنِداءً
[البقرة/ ١٧١] أي: لا يعرف إلّا الصَّوْت المجرَّد دون المعنى الذي يقتضيه تركيبُ الكلام. ويقال للمركَّب الذي يُفْهَم منه المعنى ذلك، قال تعالى: وَإِذْ نادى رَبُّكَ مُوسى
[الشعراء/ ١٠] وقوله: وَإِذا نادَيْتُمْ إِلَى الصَّلاةِ
[المائدة/ ٥٨] ، أي: دَعَوْتُمْ، وكذلك: إِذا نُودِيَ لِلصَّلاةِ مِنْ يَوْمِ الْجُمُعَةِ
[الجمعة/ ٩] ونِدَاءُ الصلاة مخصوصٌ في
The imams of the language define the call as the voice itself. Al-Jawharī wrote that al-nidāʾ is the voice, and that nādāhu means he cried out to him. Al-Rāghib wrote that the call is the raising of the voice and its being made manifest. No Arab understood by nidāʾ a meaning that stays in the soul and is never heard.
In the Sharīʿah, the speech of Allah is an attribute of His. He speaks when He wills, with what He wills, with letters and a voice that His creation hear, and His voice does not resemble the voices of creatures. The kind of His speech is eternal, and the particular words are spoken when He wills. The Qurʾān is His speech, letters and meanings, not created, from Him it began and to Him it will return.
Part Two
The texts of the Qurʾān and the Sunnah
Second Issue: Allah Speaks and Calls: The Speech of Allah in His Book
The Book of Allah states His speech with the verb kallama and its emphatic verbal noun, with the verb nādā and its noun nidāʾ, and with qālah in the past and the future, attached to times and places and heard by those addressed.
Allah, the Exalted, said:
… and Allah spoke to Mūsā with direct speech (taklīman).
Qurʾān 4:164 Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
Allah spoke to Mūsā with direct speech, the emphatic verbal noun taklīman leaving no room for a figurative reading. When Mūsā came to the fire he was called: “O Mūsā, I am your Lord … so listen to what is revealed.” In al-Nāziʿāt: “When his Lord called him in the sacred valley of Ṭuwā.”
And He said of Mūsā at the fire:
Then when he came to it, he was called: 'O Mūsā! Indeed, I am your Lord, so remove your sandals; you are in the sacred valley of Ṭuwā. And I have chosen you, so listen to what is revealed.'
Qurʾān 20:11–13 Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
And He said:
When his Lord called him in the sacred valley of Ṭuwā.
Qurʾān 79:16 Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
He was called, and told: I am your Lord, and: listen to what is revealed. The verb of calling is in the passive, nūdiyah, with Allah as the One who calls, and the command to listen proves that what was said was heard.
And He said:
And We called him from the right side of the Mount, and We brought him near in intimate converse.
Qurʾān 19:52 (Maryam) Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
The verse of Maryam places the call and the intimate converse side by side. The call is loud speech heard from afar, and the intimate converse is quiet speech to one who is near. Both are kinds of voice. Whoever says that the speech of Allah has no voice has to empty both words of their meaning, and the Arabic of the Qurʾān does not allow it.
And He said of Ādam and Ḥawwāʾ:
So he brought them down by deception. And when they tasted of the tree, their private parts became apparent to them, and they began to fasten over themselves the leaves of the Garden. And their Lord called to them: Did I not forbid you from that tree, and tell you that Satan is to you a clear enemy?
Qurʾān 7:22 (al-Aʿrāf) Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
And He said of the Day of Resurrection:
And the Day He will call them and say: Where are My partners whom you used to claim?
Qurʾān 28:62 (al-Qaṣaṣ) Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
Allah described His speech in the Qurʾān with the word nidāʾ again and again, and attached it to particular times and places. He called Mūsā from the right side of the Mount, and then brought him near in intimate converse. He called Ādam and Ḥawwāʾ after they ate from the tree. He will call the mushrikūn on the Day of Resurrection and ask them where their partners are. Every one of these calls happened at a moment it had not happened before, and every one was heard by the one called.
Third Issue: His Words Have No End, and He Speaks When He Wills
Allah, the Exalted, said:
Say: If the sea were ink for the words of my Lord, the sea would be exhausted before the words of my Lord were exhausted, even if We brought the like of it as a supplement.
Qurʾān 18:109 (al-Kahf) Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
And He said:
And if whatever trees are upon the earth were pens, and the sea, with seven seas after it to replenish it, the words of Allah would not be exhausted. Indeed Allah is Mighty, Wise.
Qurʾān 31:27 (Luqmān) Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
Allah said that if the sea were ink for His words, the sea would run out before His words, even with another sea like it. He said that if every tree on the earth were a pen and seven seas replenished the sea, His words would not be exhausted. Words that never run out are not a single meaning. The Ashʿarī doctrine, which makes the speech of Allah one indivisible meaning that is command, prohibition and report all at once, cannot stand beside these two verses.
And He said:
And when your Lord said to the angels: I am placing upon the earth a successor. They said: Will You place upon it one who will cause corruption in it and shed blood, while we glorify You with praise and sanctify You? He said: I know what you do not know.
Qurʾān 2:30 (al-Baqarah) Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
Allah said: “And when your Lord said to the angels.” The word idh refers to a particular time in the past. The saying happened then, before the creation of Ādam, and the angels answered it, and He answered them. This is speech that takes place when Allah wills, in its time, and it is real speech with a real answer.
And He said:
His command, when He wills a thing, is only that He says to it: Be, and it is.
Qurʾān 36:82 (Yā Sīn) Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
Allah said: His command, when He wills a thing, is only that He says to it: Be, and it is. The imams argued from this verse against the Jahmiyyah: if the word “Be” were itself created, it would have needed another “Be” to bring it into being, and that one another, without end. So the word by which things are created is not itself created; it is the speech of Allah.
And He said of the calf of the Children of Israel:
And the people of Mūsā, after him, took from their ornaments a calf, a body that lowed. Did they not see that it did not speak to them and did not guide them to a way? They took it, and they were wrongdoers.
Qurʾān 7:148 (al-Aʿrāf) Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
And He said:
Did they not see that it did not return to them any word, and that it possessed for them neither harm nor benefit?
Qurʾān 20:89 (Ṭā Hā) Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
When the Children of Israel took the calf, Allah rebuked them with a proof: did they not see that it did not speak to them, and did not return to them any word? He made the absence of speech a sign that the calf was not a god. If the true God did not speak, the proof would turn against Him, and the calf would share the very deficiency that Allah used to show its falsehood.
Al-Sijzī and the imams before him drew from this that speech is an attribute of perfection, and that its absence is a deficiency. The Jahmiyyah who said that Allah does not speak, and the later schools who said He speaks with a speech that is never heard, have described their Lord with what Allah used as a mark of the false god.
Fourth Issue: The Speech and the Voice in the Sunnah of the Messenger ﷺ
Al-Bukhārī said in Kitāb al-Tawḥīd of his Ṣaḥīḥ:
Chapter: the saying of Allah, Exalted is He: {Intercession will not benefit with Him except for one whom He permits; until, when the terror is lifted from their hearts, they say: What did your Lord say? They say: The truth; and He is the Most High, the Most Great}. And He did not say: What did your Lord create? And He said, exalted is His mention: {Who is it that can intercede with Him except by His permission?} And Masrūq said, from Ibn Masʿūd: When Allah speaks the revelation, the inhabitants of the heavens hear something; and when the terror is lifted from their hearts and the voice has become still, they know that it is the truth, and they call out: {What did your Lord say? They say: The truth.} And it is mentioned from Jābir, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Unays, who said: I heard the Prophet ﷺ say: “Allah will gather the servants, and He will call them with a voice that the one far away hears as the one near hears it: I am the King, I am the Judge.”
al-Bukhārī, al-Ṣaḥīḥ (al-Sulṭāniyyah), Kitāb al-Tawḥīd, 9/141
Source, chain and authenticity
Al-Bukhārī gave the report of Ibn Masʿūd with its chain from Masrūq, and the ḥadīth of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Unays in the form “it is mentioned”, which he uses for what he holds sound in meaning but whose chain is not on the condition of his Ṣaḥīḥ. He gave the full ḥadīth with its chain in al-Adab al-Mufrad and Khalq Afʿāl al-ʿIbād.
Al-Bukhārī gave a chapter of Kitāb al-Tawḥīd to the verse: “until, when the terror is lifted from their hearts, they say: What did your Lord say? They say: The truth.” He drew the conclusion himself in the heading: and He did not say, what did your Lord create. The angels asked about something said, not something made.
He then brought the report of Ibn Masʿūd, that when Allah speaks the revelation the inhabitants of the heavens hear something, and the terror is lifted from their hearts when the voice becomes still. And he brought the ḥadīth of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Unays, that Allah will gather the servants and call them with a voice heard by the far as by the near. Al-Bukhārī placed these texts in his book on tawḥīd, against the Jahmiyyah, because the Voice was one of the points on which they denied the speech of Allah.
Al-Bukhārī reported in al-Adab al-Mufrad, from Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh:
[Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh travelled to ʿAbd Allāh ibn Unays, who said:] I heard the Prophet ﷺ say: 'Allah will gather the servants (or: the people) naked, uncircumcised, buhman.' We said: What is buhman? He said: 'They will have nothing with them. Then He will call them with a voice which the one far away hears (I think he said: as the one near hears it): I am the King…'
al-Bukhārī, al-Adab al-Mufrad no. 970 (ed. al-Zuhayrī, p. 540)
Source, chain and authenticity
Ḥasan. Its chain passes through ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAqīl, over whom the critics differed, and the scholars judged it ḥasan. Al-Bukhārī mentioned Jābir's journey of a month to hear this one ḥadīth in Kitāb al-ʿIlm of his Ṣaḥīḥ, and cited its wording in Kitāb al-Tawḥīd.
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صحيح ـ «الصحيحة» (١٦٠) : خ تعليقاً. [ «المسند» (٣: ٤٩٥) ]
٤٤٣- باب الرجل يقبل ابنته
٩٧١ - عَنْ عَائِشَةَ أُمِّ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ ﵂ قالت:
Jābir travelled a month's journey to hear from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Unays the ḥadīth that Allah will gather the servants and call them with a voice which the one far away hears as the one near hears it: I am the King. Al-Bukhārī, in Khalq Afʿāl al-ʿIbād, cites it to distinguish the voice of Allah from the voices of creatures: when Allah calls, the angels swoon, and when the angels call one another they do not. When Allah speaks the revelation, the people of heaven hear a sound like a chain dragged over smooth stone.
Abū Dāwūd reported in his Sunan from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:
عن عبدِ الله، قال: قال رسولُ الله ﷺ: "إذا تَكَلَّمَ الله بالوحي سَمعَ أهلُ السماء للسّماء صَلْصَلةَ كجَرِّ السِّلَسلَة على الصَّفا، فيُصعَقون
4738. Aḥmad ibn Abī Surayj al-Rāzī, ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Ibrāhīm and ʿAlī ibn Muslim narrated to us, saying: Abū Muʿāwiyah narrated to us: al-Aʿmash narrated to us, from Muslim, from Masrūq, from ʿAbd Allāh [ibn Masʿūd], who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: 'When Allah speaks the revelation, the people of heaven hear a ringing (ṣalṣalah) from heaven, like a chain being dragged over smooth stone, and they swoon…'
Abū Dāwūd, al-Sunan no. 4738 (ed. al-Arnaʾūṭ 7/117)
Source, chain and authenticity
Authentic in its chain: Abū Muʿāwiyah, from al-Aʿmash, from Muslim ibn Ṣubayḥ, from Masrūq, from Ibn Masʿūd — Kūfan imams, every one trustworthy. Al-Bukhārī cited the words of Ibn Masʿūd in Kitāb al-Tawḥīd of his Ṣaḥīḥ.
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قال أبو داود: هذا دليل على أن القرآن ليس بمخلوق (¬٢).
٤٧٣٨ - حدَّثنا أحمدُ بنُ أبي سريج الرازيُّ وعلي بنُ الحسين بن إبراهيمَ وعليُّ ابنُ مسلمٍ، قالوا: حدَّثنا أبو معاويةَ، حدَّثنا الأعمش، عن مسلمٍ، عن مسروقٍ
عن عبدِ الله، قال: قال رسولُ الله ﷺ: "إذا تَكَلَّمَ الله بالوحي سَمعَ أهلُ السماء للسّماء صَلْصَلةَ كجَرِّ السِّلَسلَة على الصَّفا، فيُصعَقون، فلا يَزالونَ كذلك حتى يأتيهُم جبريلُ ﵇، حتى إذا جاءَهم
The people of the heavens hear the speech of Allah as a ringing like a chain dragged over smooth stone, and they swoon. They hear it, and it overwhelms them; and when the terror is lifted from their hearts they ask: what did your Lord say? Speech that is heard and that causes the angels to swoon is not a meaning hidden in the soul.
And al-Bukhārī said in Khalq Afʿāl al-ʿIbād:
And it is mentioned of the Prophet ﷺ that he liked a man to be low-voiced and disliked his being loud-voiced; and that Allah, Mighty and Majestic, calls with a voice which the far one hears as the near one hears it; and this belongs to none other than Allah, glorified be His mention. Abū ʿAbd Allāh [al-Bukhārī] said: And in this is evidence that the voice of Allah does not resemble the voices of creatures, because the voice of Allah, glorified be His mention, is heard from afar as it is heard from near, and the angels swoon at His voice; but when the angels call one another they do not swoon. And He, Mighty and Majestic, said: 'So do not set up equals to Allah' [al-Baqarah 22].
al-Bukhārī, Khalq Afʿāl al-ʿIbād p. 98; quoted in Ibn Qudāmah, Ithbāt Ṣifat al-ʿUluww p. 116 and Ibn Taymiyyah, al-Fatāwā al-Kubrā 6/485
Source, chain and authenticity
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Al-Bukhārī drew the rule from it: the voice of Allah does not resemble the voices of creatures, for it is heard from afar as from near, and the angels swoon at it while they do not swoon at one another's voices. Then he recited: so do not set up equals to Allah. Affirming the Voice and denying its likeness to created voices are one sentence in his words.
Part Three
The statements of the Salaf
Fifth Issue: The Salaf on the Speech and the Voice
ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad said in Kitāb al-Sunnah:
534. And my father, may Allah have mercy on him, said: The ḥadīth of Ibn Masʿūd, may Allah be pleased with him: 'When Allah, Mighty and Majestic, speaks, a voice is heard from Him like the dragging of a chain over smooth stone.' My father said: And the Jahmiyyah deny this. And my father said: These are disbelievers who want to deceive people. Whoever claims that Allah, Mighty and Majestic, did not speak is a disbeliever. Indeed, we narrate these ḥadīths as they have come.
ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad, al-Sunnah 1/281 no. 534
Source, chain and authenticity
Imām Aḥmad, commenting on the ḥadīth of Ibn Masʿūd that when Allah speaks a voice is heard from Him, said that whoever claims that Allah did not speak is a disbeliever, and that these ḥadīths are narrated as they came. Al-Naḍr ibn Muḥammad said that whoever holds the words “I am Allah” to be created has disbelieved, and Ibn al-Mubārak confirmed him: Allah would not command us to worship a created thing.
And he said:
20. Abū ʿAmr Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Abī Rizma narrated to me, saying: I heard Abū al-Wazīr Muḥammad ibn Aʿyan say: I heard al-Naḍr ibn Muḥammad say: Whoever says of this verse, 'Indeed, I am Allah; there is no god but Me, so worship Me' [Ṭāhā 14], that it is created, is a disbeliever. So I went to ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak and told him. He said: Abū Muḥammad spoke the truth, may Allah keep him well; Allah would not command us to worship a created thing.
ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad, al-Sunnah 1/110–111 no. 20; also Ibn Baṭṭah, al-Ibānah 6/37 and 6/318; Masāʾil Abī Dāwūd p. 359
Source, chain and authenticity
Al-Naḍr ibn Muḥammad and Ibn al-Mubārak reasoned from the words themselves: “Indeed, I am Allah; there is no god but Me, so worship Me.” If these words were created in a tree, then a created thing said “I am Allah” and commanded worship of itself, and Allah does not command us to worship a created thing. The argument of the two imams is the argument of the Qurʾān against the calf: a god is known by his speech.
Part Four
The imams after them
Sixth Issue: The Imams After Them, to the Imams of the Najdī Daʿwah
Ibn Taymiyyah said:
And nidāʾ (calling) in the language of the Arabs is a raised voice; nidāʾ is not applied to what is not a voice, neither literally nor metaphorically. And since calling is a species of voice, what indicates the species necessarily indicates the genus — just as, if a proof shows that there is a human here, one knows that there is an animal here.
Ibn Taymiyyah, Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā 6/531
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وَهَذَا كَمَا أَنَّهُ إذَا أَخْبَرَ أَنَّ لَهُ عِلْمًا وَقُدْرَةً دَلَّ عَلَى أَنَّ لَهُ صِفَةً؛ لِأَنَّ الْعِلْمَ وَالْقُدْرَةَ نَوْعٌ مِنْ الصِّفَاتِ وَإِذَا كَانَ لَفْظُ الْقُرْآنِ لَمْ يُذْكَرْ فِيهِ أَنَّ الْعِلْمَ صِفَةٌ وَلَا الْقُدْرَةَ صِفَةٌ. وَكَذَلِكَ إذَا أَخْبَرَ فِي الْقُرْآنِ أَنَّهُ يَخْلُقُ وَيَرْزُقُ وَيُحْيِي وَيُمِيتُ دَلَّ عَلَى أَنَّهُ فَاعِلٌ فَإِنَّ هَذِهِ أَنْوَاعٌ تَحْتَ جِنْسِ الْفِعْلِ وَإِنْ كَانَ ثُبُوتُ هَذِهِ الصِّفَةِ بِمَا قَدْ دَلَّ عَلَيْهِ الْقُرْآنُ - فِي غَيْرِ مَوْضِعٍ - كَانَ مَا جَاءَ مِنْ الْأَحَادِيثِ مُوَافِقًا لِدَلَالَةِ الْقُرْآنِ وَلَمْ تَكُنْ هَذِهِ الصِّفَةُ ثَابِتَةً بِمُجَرَّدِ هَذَا الْخَبَرِ.
الْوَجْهُ الثَّالِثُ أَنَّ مَا أَخْبَرَ اللَّهُ بِهِ فِي كِتَابِهِ مِنْ تَكْلِيمِ مُوسَى وَسَمْعِ مُوسَى لِكَلَامِ اللَّهِ يَدُلُّ عَلَى أَنَّهُ كَلَّمَهُ بِصَوْتِ؛ فَإِنَّهُ لَا يُسْمَعُ إلَّا الصَّوْتُ؛ وَذَلِكَ أَنَّ اللَّهَ قَالَ فِي كِتَابِهِ عَنْ مُوسَى: ﴿فَاسْتَمِعْ لِمَا يُوحَى﴾ وَقَالَ فِي كِتَابِهِ: ﴿إنَّا أَوْحَيْنَا إلَيْكَ كَمَا أَوْحَيْنَا إلَى نُوحٍ وَالنَّبِيِّينَ مِنْ بَعْدِهِ وَأَوْحَيْنَا إلَى إبْرَاهِيمَ وَإِسْمَاعِيلَ وَإِسْحَاقَ وَيَعْقُوبَ وَالْأَسْبَاطِ وَعِيسَى وَأَيُّوبَ وَيُونُسَ وَهَارُونَ وَسُلَيْمَانَ وَآتَيْنَا دَاوُدَ زَبُورًا
Ibn Taymiyyah notes that nidāʾ in the language of the Arabs is a raised voice, and that the word is never used of what is not a voice, literally or figuratively. Since calling is a species of voice, what proves the species proves the genus.
And he said in al-ʿAqīdah al-Wāsiṭiyyah:
And of faith in Allah and His Books is faith that the Qurʾān is the speech of Allah, sent down, not created; from Him it began and to Him it will return; that Allah, Exalted is He, spoke it in reality; and that this Qurʾān which He sent down upon Muḥammad ﷺ is the speech of Allah in reality, not the speech of anyone else. It is not permissible to say without qualification that it is a reproduction (ḥikāyah) of the speech of Allah or an expression (ʿibārah) of it. Rather, when people recite it or write it in the copies of the Muṣḥaf, it does not by that cease to be the speech of Allah, Exalted is He, in reality; for speech is attributed in reality to the one who said it first, not to the one who said it conveying and delivering it. And it is the speech of Allah, its letters and its meanings: the speech of Allah is not the letters without the meanings, nor the meanings without the letters.
Ibn Taymiyyah, al-ʿAqīdah al-Wāsiṭiyyah, in Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā 3/144
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وَمِنْ الْإِيمَانِ بِاَللَّهِ وَكُتُبِهِ: الْإِيمَانُ بِأَنَّ الْقُرْآنَ كَلَامُ اللَّهِ مُنَزَّلٌ غَيْرُ مَخْلُوقٍ مِنْهُ بَدَأَ وَإِلَيْهِ يَعُودُ؛ وَأَنَّ اللَّهَ تَعَالَى تَكَلَّمَ بِهِ حَقِيقَةً وَأَنَّ هَذَا الْقُرْآنَ الَّذِي أَنْزَلَهُ عَلَى مُحَمَّدٍ ﷺ هُوَ كَلَامُ اللَّهِ حَقِيقَةً لَا كَلَامُ غَيْرِهِ؛ وَلَا يَجُوزُ إطْلَاقُ الْقَوْلِ بِأَنَّهُ حِكَايَةٌ عَنْ كَلَامِ اللَّهِ أَوْ عِبَارَةٌ عَنْهُ بَلْ إذَا قَرَأَهُ النَّاسُ أَوْ كَتَبُوهُ بِذَلِكَ فِي الْمَصَاحِفِ: لَمْ يَخْرُجْ بِذَلِكَ عَنْ أَنْ يَكُونَ كَلَامَ اللَّهِ تَعَالَى حَقِيقَةً فَإِنَّ الْكَلَامَ إنَّمَا يُضَافُ حَقِيقَةً إلَى مَنْ قَالَهُ مُبْتَدِئًا لَا إلَى مَنْ قَالَهُ مُبَلِّغًا مُؤَدِّيًا. وَهُوَ كَلَامُ اللَّهِ؛ حُرُوفُهُ وَمَعَانِيهِ؛ لَيْسَ كَلَامُ اللَّهِ الْحُرُوفَ دُونَ الْمَعَانِي وَلَا الْمَعَانِيَ دُونَ الْحُرُوفِ.
فَصْلٌ:
وَقَدْ دَخَلَ أَيْضًا فِيمَا ذَكَرْنَاهُ مِنْ الْإِيمَانِ بِهِ وَبِكُتُبِهِ وَبِرُسُلِهِ: الْإِيمَانُ بِأَنَّ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ يَرَوْنَهُ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ عِيَانًا بِأَبْصَارِهِمْ كَمَا يَرَوْنَ الشَّمْسَ صَحْوًا لَيْسَ دُونَهَا سَحَابٌ وَكَمَا يَرَوْنَ الْقَمَرَ لَيْلَةَ الْبَدْرِ لَا يضامون فِي رُؤْيَتِهِ يَرَوْنَهُ سُبْحَانَهُ وَهُمْ فِي عَرَصَاتِ الْقِيَامَةِ ثُمَّ يَرَوْنَهُ بَعْدَ دُخُولِ الْجَنَّةِ كَمَا يَشَاءُ اللَّهُ ﷾.
Ibn Taymiyyah gathered the creed of Ahl al-Sunnah on the Qurʾān in one paragraph of al-ʿAqīdah al-Wāsiṭiyyah. It is the speech of Allah, sent down, not created. From Him it began and to Him it will return. He spoke it in reality. It is not a reproduction of His speech or an expression of it. When it is recited and written it remains His speech, because speech belongs to the one who first said it, not to the one who conveys it. And it is His speech with its letters and its meanings together.
Each clause answers an opponent. “Not created” answers the Jahmiyyah and the Muʿtazilah. “Spoke it in reality” answers those who say Allah created the speech in something else. “Not a reproduction” answers the Kullābiyyah, and “not an expression” answers the Ashʿarīs. “Letters and meanings” answers both those who make the speech the meaning alone and those who make it the letters alone.
Part Five
Principles drawn from the evidence
Seventh Issue: The Rules Concerning the Speech of Allah
The first rule: Allah has spoken and still speaks. He spoke to Mūsā, He spoke to the angels, He will speak to the believers on the Day of Resurrection and in Paradise, and He will speak to the people of the Fire in rebuke. Whoever says that He spoke once in eternity and does not speak afterwards has denied the many texts in which Allah says, “and when your Lord said to the angels”, in the past tense, at a particular time.
The second rule: what is recited, written and memorised is the speech of Allah. The voice of the reciter is his own and the ink is created, but what he recites is the speech of Allah. Whoever says that the Qurʾān in our copies is only an expression of the speech of Allah has made the Book that the Muslims hold between two covers something other than the speech of their Lord.
Part Six
The claims of the opponents and their refutation
The Kullābiyyah and the Ashʿarīs: “speech without sound”, “a meaning in the soul”, “the recited Qurʾān is an expression”
The claim
Said by Ibn Kullāb, and after him by the Ashʿarīs and the Māturīdīs
“The speech of Allah is a single eternal meaning subsisting in His Essence, without letters and without sound. What is heard and recited is an expression (ʿibārah) of it, and the Arabic Qurʾān that is recited and written is created. The proof is the verse: ‘and they say within themselves’.”
Its origin Ibn Kullāb, who sought a middle way between Ahl al-Sunnah and the Muʿtazilah; its result, that the recited Qurʾān is created, is the doctrine of the Muʿtazilah.
The response
Allah said that He called Mūsā and told him to listen. A call is a raised voice in the language the Qurʾān was revealed in, and listening is only to what is heard. Imām Aḥmad declared a disbeliever whoever claims that Allah did not speak, and narrated the ḥadīths of the voice as they came.
The imams of the Najdī daʿwah said, in an answer preserved in al-Durar al-Saniyyah:
As for the question of the letter and the voice, it is to be taken the same way. Allah, Exalted is He, spoke the glorious Qurʾān and all of its letters: He said “Alif Lām Mīm”, and He said “Alif Lām Mīm Ṣād”, and He said “Qāf”. And so it came in the ḥadīth: “Then He will call on the Day of Resurrection with a voice that the one far away hears as the one near hears it.”
An answer of the imams of the Najdī daʿwah preserved in al-Durar al-Saniyyah, Kitāb al-Asmāʾ wa-l-Ṣifāt, 3/26
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فيحصل بذلك: إثبات ما وصف به نفسه في كتابه، وفي سنة رسوله ﷺ؛ ويحصل أيضا نفي التشبيه والتكييف في صفاته، ويحصل أيضا ترك التأويل، والتحريف، المؤدي إلى التعطيل، ويحصل أيضا إثبات الصفات على ما يليق بجلال الله وعظمته، لا على ما نعقله نحن من صفات المخلوقين، وأما الأشاعرة فيؤلون النصوص الواردة في كتاب الله وسنة رسوله، فيؤلون الاستواء بالاستيلاء، والنّزول بنُزول الأمر، واليدين بالقدرتين والنعمتين، والقدم بقدم صدق، وأمثال ذلك.
وأما أهل السنة والجماعة فيصفون الله بهذه الصفات، وغيرها، مما وصف به نفسه، ولا يحرفون الكلم عن مواضعه، ولا يكيفون، ولا يشبهون; والكلام عندهم في الصفات فرع على الكلام في الذات، فكما أن ذاته لا تشبه ذوات خلقه، فكذلك صفاته لا تشبه صفات خلقه، فإذا ثبت وصفه تعالى بالصفات السبع، على ما يليق بجلاله، فكذلك باقي الصفات.
وأما مسألة الحرف والصوت، فتساق هذا المساق، فإن الله تعالى: قد تكلم بالقرآن المجيد، وبجميع حروفه، فقال: "الم"، وقال: "المص"، وقال: " ق "؛ وكذلك جاء في الحديث: " فينادي يوم القيامة بصوت يسمعه من بعد، كما يسمعه من قرب "١، وفي الحديث: " لا أقول الم حرف، ولكن
The imams of the daʿwah apply the same rule to the letter and the voice. Allah spoke the Qurʾān with all its letters, “Alif Lām Mīm”, “Alif Lām Mīm Ṣād”, “Qāf”, and the ḥadīth states that He will call on the Day of Resurrection with a voice heard from afar as from near.
Allah, the Exalted, said:
Have you not seen those who were forbidden from secret counsel, and then they return to what they were forbidden from, and they hold secret counsel in sin, aggression and disobedience to the Messenger? And when they come to you, they greet you with that with which Allah does not greet you, and they say within themselves: Why does Allah not punish us for what we say? Hell is sufficient for them; they will burn in it, and wretched is the destination.
Qurʾān 58:8 (al-Mujādilah) Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
The verse is against them. Allah said “they say within themselves”, and He restricted the saying with the words “within themselves”. In the Arabic of the Qurʾān an unrestricted word is understood in its plain meaning, and a restriction shows that the plain meaning was not intended without it. Had “saying” meant a thought in the soul when it stands alone, there would have been no need to add “within themselves”.
And He said:
And keep your speech secret or declare it openly; indeed He knows well what is within the breasts.
Qurʾān 67:13 (al-Mulk) Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
The Qurʾān also calls a whisper speech: “And keep your speech secret or declare it openly.” A whisper is still speech with words, spoken quietly. So the opponents' two verses together prove only that speech can be loud or quiet, not that speech is a meaning without words.
Al-Bukhārī reported in his Ṣaḥīḥ from Abū Hurayrah that the Prophet ﷺ said:
Muslim ibn Ibrāhīm narrated to us: Hishām narrated to us: Qatādah narrated to us, from Zurārah ibn Awfā, from Abū Hurayrah, from the Prophet ﷺ, who said: “Allah has pardoned my nation what their souls say to them, so long as they do not act on it or speak it.” Qatādah said: If he divorces within himself, it is nothing.
al-Bukhārī, al-Ṣaḥīḥ (al-Sulṭāniyyah), 7/46, no. 5269
Source, chain and authenticity
Authentic: al-Bukhārī (5269) through Hishām al-Dastuwāʾī, from Qatādah, from Zurārah ibn Awfā, from Abū Hurayrah; and Muslim reported it as well.
The Prophet ﷺ settled the question in the ḥadīth of Abū Hurayrah. Allah has pardoned what the souls of this nation say to them so long as they do not act on it or speak it. He separated what the soul says to itself from speaking, and made speaking something that has not yet happened while the thought remains in the soul. The scholars of fiqh built rulings on this ḥadīth: Qatādah said that whoever divorces within himself has not divorced at all. If the thought in the soul were speech, his divorce would have taken effect.
On this doctrine the Muṣḥaf the Muslims hold is not the speech of Allah, and what Jibrīl brought down was not the speech of Allah but words that indicate it. Then who composed those words? If Jibrīl, the Qurʾān is the speech of Jibrīl. If Muḥammad ﷺ, it is his speech, and that is the saying of the mushrikūn: “This is nothing but the word of a human being.” If Allah created them in something, they are created speech, and that is the doctrine of the Muʿtazilah under another name.
Allah said: “And if anyone of the mushrikūn seeks your protection, grant him protection so that he hears the speech of Allah.” The mushrik heard the recitation of the Prophet ﷺ, and Allah called what he heard the speech of Allah. Ibn Taymiyyah's rule answers the rest: speech belongs to the one who said it first, not to the one who conveys it. When a poet's verse is recited, people say “these are the words of the poet”, though the voice is the voice of the reciter.
The Jahmiyyah and the Muʿtazilah: “a voice created in the tree”
The claim
Said by the Jahmiyyah and the Muʿtazilah
Mūsā heard a voice that Allah created in the tree or in the air.
Its origin Jahm ibn Ṣafwān and Bishr al-Marīsī; Imām Aḥmad judged: whoever claims that Allah did not speak is a disbeliever.
The response
The words Mūsā heard were “I am your Lord” and “I am Allah”. Al-Naḍr ibn Muḥammad and Ibn al-Mubārak judged that whoever makes these words created makes a created thing say “worship Me”. Al-Bukhārī distinguishes the voice of Allah from every created voice: it is heard from afar as from near, and the angels swoon at it, while they do not swoon at one another's voices.
Their doctrine and the doctrine of the Kullābiyyah meet in the end. The Jahmī says the words Mūsā heard were created in a tree; the Kullābī says the words recited in the Muṣḥaf are created to express a meaning. Both make the Arabic words that Allah spoke a creature, and Imām Aḥmad named the doctrine: these are disbelievers who want to deceive people.
Part Seven
The reports in full, with their sources
The Voice of Allah: A Refutation of the Ashʿarī and Māturīdī Doctrine
Precision on the opponents' positions, needed before the refutation: (a) the Jahmiyyah and Muʿtazilah: Allah's speech is created in another (e.g. the tree). (b) The Ashʿarīs: Allah's speech is one eternal meaning subsisting in His essence (kalām nafsī), not letters or sound; Mūsā 'heard' it by a perception Allah created in him (al-Bāqillānī, al-Juwaynī). (c) The Māturīdīs: the eternal speech is not heard; what Mūsā heard was a sound Allah created .
Qurʾān
Allah, the Exalted, said:
Then when he came to it, he was called: 'O Mūsā! Indeed, I am your Lord, so remove your sandals; you are in the sacred valley of Ṭuwā. And I have chosen you, so listen to what is revealed.'
Qurʾān 20:11–13 Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
Allah, the Exalted, said:
When his Lord called him in the sacred valley of Ṭuwā.
Qurʾān 79:16 Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
Ibn Taymiyyah, as Compiled in al-Munāẓarāt al-ʿAqadiyyah li-Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah P
Ibn Taymiyyah said in as compiled in al-Munāẓarāt al-ʿAqadiyyah li-Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah p:
وقد "استفاضت الآثار عن النبي ﷺ، والصحابة، والتابعين، ومن بعدهم من أئمة السنة أنه -سبحانه- ينادي بصوت: نادى موسى، وينادي عباده يوم القيامة بصوت، ويتكلم بصوت" (¬٢)، "والنداء في لغة العرب هو صوت رفيع؛ لا يطلق النداء على ما ليس بصوت لا حقيقة، ولا مجازاً" (¬٣) "باتفاق أهل اللغة" (¬٤). و"هذا مما اتفق عليه سلف المسلمين وجمهورهم"
Allah, the Exalted, has informed in the Qurʾān of His calling (nidāʾ) His servants in more than ten places, and a call is only a voice, by the agreement of the people of the language and of people generally [Minhāj al-Sunnah 5/423]. And 'the reports have spread widely from the Prophet ﷺ, the Companions, the Successors and the imams of the Sunnah after them that He, glorified be He, calls with a voice: He called Mūsā, He will call His servants on the Day of Resurrection with a voice, and He speaks with a voice' [Majmūʿ 12/304–305]. 'And nidāʾ in the language of the Arabs is a raised voice; the term nidāʾ is not applied to what is not a voice, neither literally nor figuratively' [Majmūʿ 6/531, 12/130] 'by the agreement of the people of the language' [Majmūʿ 12/40]. And 'this is something on which the Salaf of the Muslims and their majority agree' [Majmūʿ 12/40].
Ibn Taymiyyah, as compiled in al-Munāẓarāt al-ʿAqadiyyah li-Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah p
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وقد "استفاضت الآثار عن النبي ﷺ، والصحابة، والتابعين، ومن بعدهم من أئمة السنة أنه -سبحانه- ينادي بصوت: نادى موسى، وينادي عباده يوم القيامة بصوت، ويتكلم بصوت" (¬٢)، "والنداء في لغة العرب هو صوت رفيع؛ لا يطلق النداء على ما ليس بصوت لا حقيقة، ولا مجازاً" (¬٣) "باتفاق أهل اللغة" (¬٤). و"هذا مما اتفق عليه سلف المسلمين وجمهورهم" (¬٥).
المسألة الخامسة: محاولة الخصوم إثبات التأويل عن السلف:
تمهيد:
قرر شيخ الإسلام ﵀ أثناء مناظرته في العقيدة الواسطية، وجوب إثبات الصفات لله ﷿ من غير تمثيل ولا تعطيل ولا تحريف ولا تكييف، وأكد أن هذه العقيدة عليها إجماع السلف، وأنهم كانوا يثبتون ما ورد في النصوص من صفات الله ﷿ من غير تمثيل لها بصفات المخلوقين، ومن غير تحريف لها عن معناها الحق وصرفها عن ظاهرها التي دلت عليه، بل يقرون بها كما هي حق على حقيقتها، ويفوضون علم كيفيتها إلى الله سبحانه، وبين ﵀ أن هذا الأمر
Ibn Taymiyyah said in Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā:
And nidāʾ (calling) in the language of the Arabs is a raised voice; nidāʾ is not applied to what is not a voice, neither literally nor metaphorically. And since calling is a species of voice, what indicates the species necessarily indicates the genus — just as, if a proof shows that there is a human here, one knows that there is an animal here.
Ibn Taymiyyah, Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā 6/531
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وَهَذَا كَمَا أَنَّهُ إذَا أَخْبَرَ أَنَّ لَهُ عِلْمًا وَقُدْرَةً دَلَّ عَلَى أَنَّ لَهُ صِفَةً؛ لِأَنَّ الْعِلْمَ وَالْقُدْرَةَ نَوْعٌ مِنْ الصِّفَاتِ وَإِذَا كَانَ لَفْظُ الْقُرْآنِ لَمْ يُذْكَرْ فِيهِ أَنَّ الْعِلْمَ صِفَةٌ وَلَا الْقُدْرَةَ صِفَةٌ. وَكَذَلِكَ إذَا أَخْبَرَ فِي الْقُرْآنِ أَنَّهُ يَخْلُقُ وَيَرْزُقُ وَيُحْيِي وَيُمِيتُ دَلَّ عَلَى أَنَّهُ فَاعِلٌ فَإِنَّ هَذِهِ أَنْوَاعٌ تَحْتَ جِنْسِ الْفِعْلِ وَإِنْ كَانَ ثُبُوتُ هَذِهِ الصِّفَةِ بِمَا قَدْ دَلَّ عَلَيْهِ الْقُرْآنُ - فِي غَيْرِ مَوْضِعٍ - كَانَ مَا جَاءَ مِنْ الْأَحَادِيثِ مُوَافِقًا لِدَلَالَةِ الْقُرْآنِ وَلَمْ تَكُنْ هَذِهِ الصِّفَةُ ثَابِتَةً بِمُجَرَّدِ هَذَا الْخَبَرِ.
الْوَجْهُ الثَّالِثُ أَنَّ مَا أَخْبَرَ اللَّهُ بِهِ فِي كِتَابِهِ مِنْ تَكْلِيمِ مُوسَى وَسَمْعِ مُوسَى لِكَلَامِ اللَّهِ يَدُلُّ عَلَى أَنَّهُ كَلَّمَهُ بِصَوْتِ؛ فَإِنَّهُ لَا يُسْمَعُ إلَّا الصَّوْتُ؛ وَذَلِكَ أَنَّ اللَّهَ قَالَ فِي كِتَابِهِ عَنْ مُوسَى: ﴿فَاسْتَمِعْ لِمَا يُوحَى﴾ وَقَالَ فِي كِتَابِهِ: ﴿إنَّا أَوْحَيْنَا إلَيْكَ كَمَا أَوْحَيْنَا إلَى نُوحٍ وَالنَّبِيِّينَ مِنْ بَعْدِهِ وَأَوْحَيْنَا إلَى إبْرَاهِيمَ وَإِسْمَاعِيلَ وَإِسْحَاقَ وَيَعْقُوبَ وَالْأَسْبَاطِ وَعِيسَى وَأَيُّوبَ وَيُونُسَ وَهَارُونَ وَسُلَيْمَانَ وَآتَيْنَا دَاوُدَ زَبُورًا
Ibn Taymiyyah said in Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā:
… and a proof that He called him; and calling is only an audible voice; nidāʾ without an audible voice is not intelligible in the language of the Arabs, neither literally nor metaphorically.
Ibn Taymiyyah, Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā 12/130
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The genus/species argument (calling is a species of sound, as an elephant is a species of animal) is sound, and it is Ibn Taymiyyah's own: 'a call is only a voice, by the agreement of the people of the language'. Present it with the lexicographers' definitions of nidāʾ (e.g. al-Azharī, Ibn Fāris: nidāʾ = raising the voice; nadā al-ṣawt = its carrying). That shows it as a linguistic fact rather than one author's claim.
Al-Bukhārī, al-Adab al-Mufrad
Al-Bukhārī said in al-Adab al-Mufrad:
[Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh travelled to ʿAbd Allāh ibn Unays, who said:] I heard the Prophet ﷺ say: 'Allah will gather the servants (or: the people) naked, uncircumcised, buhman.' We said: What is buhman? He said: 'They will have nothing with them. Then He will call them with a voice which the one far away hears (I think he said: as the one near hears it): I am the King…'
al-Bukhārī, al-Adab al-Mufrad no. 970 (ed. al-Zuhayrī, p. 540)
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صحيح ـ «الصحيحة» (١٦٠) : خ تعليقاً. [ «المسند» (٣: ٤٩٥) ]
٤٤٣- باب الرجل يقبل ابنته
٩٧١ - عَنْ عَائِشَةَ أُمِّ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ ﵂ قالت:
Numbering checked on the page: al-Bukhārī 4800 (Sulṭāniyyah 6/122), Abū Hurayra, 'like a chain on a smooth rock' — correct (also at 7481, 9/141).
Al-Bukhārī, Khalq Afʿāl al-ʿIbād
Al-Bukhārī said in Khalq Afʿāl al-ʿIbād:
And it is mentioned of the Prophet ﷺ that he liked a man to be low-voiced and disliked his being loud-voiced; and that Allah, Mighty and Majestic, calls with a voice which the far one hears as the near one hears it; and this belongs to none other than Allah, glorified be His mention. Abū ʿAbd Allāh [al-Bukhārī] said: And in this is evidence that the voice of Allah does not resemble the voices of creatures, because the voice of Allah, glorified be His mention, is heard from afar as it is heard from near, and the angels swoon at His voice; but when the angels call one another they do not swoon. And He, Mighty and Majestic, said: 'So do not set up equals to Allah' [al-Baqarah 22].
al-Bukhārī, Khalq Afʿāl al-ʿIbād p. 98; quoted in Ibn Qudāmah, Ithbāt Ṣifat al-ʿUluww p. 116 and Ibn Taymiyyah, al-Fatāwā al-Kubrā 6/485
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The argument that 'hearing without sound is only knowing' is the Atharī rejoinder found in al-Sijzī's Risālah ilā Ahl Zabīd and Ibn Taymiyyah's al-Tisʿīniyyah. Cite one of them as the classical form of this argument.
Qurʾān
Allah, the Exalted, said:
Indeed, We have sent it down as an Arabic Qurʾān so that you may understand.
Qurʾān 12:2 Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
Abū Dāwūd, al-Sunan
Abū Dāwūd reported in his Sunan:
عن عبدِ الله، قال: قال رسولُ الله ﷺ: "إذا تَكَلَّمَ الله بالوحي سَمعَ أهلُ السماء للسّماء صَلْصَلةَ كجَرِّ السِّلَسلَة على الصَّفا، فيُصعَقون
4738. Aḥmad ibn Abī Surayj al-Rāzī, ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Ibrāhīm and ʿAlī ibn Muslim narrated to us, saying: Abū Muʿāwiyah narrated to us: al-Aʿmash narrated to us, from Muslim, from Masrūq, from ʿAbd Allāh [ibn Masʿūd], who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: 'When Allah speaks the revelation, the people of heaven hear a ringing (ṣalṣalah) from heaven, like a chain being dragged over smooth stone, and they swoon…'
Abū Dāwūd, al-Sunan no. 4738 (ed. al-Arnaʾūṭ 7/117)
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قال أبو داود: هذا دليل على أن القرآن ليس بمخلوق (¬٢).
٤٧٣٨ - حدَّثنا أحمدُ بنُ أبي سريج الرازيُّ وعلي بنُ الحسين بن إبراهيمَ وعليُّ ابنُ مسلمٍ، قالوا: حدَّثنا أبو معاويةَ، حدَّثنا الأعمش، عن مسلمٍ، عن مسروقٍ
عن عبدِ الله، قال: قال رسولُ الله ﷺ: "إذا تَكَلَّمَ الله بالوحي سَمعَ أهلُ السماء للسّماء صَلْصَلةَ كجَرِّ السِّلَسلَة على الصَّفا، فيُصعَقون، فلا يَزالونَ كذلك حتى يأتيهُم جبريلُ ﵇، حتى إذا جاءَهم
ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad, al-Sunnah
ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad reported in al-Sunnah:
20. Abū ʿAmr Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Abī Rizma narrated to me, saying: I heard Abū al-Wazīr Muḥammad ibn Aʿyan say: I heard al-Naḍr ibn Muḥammad say: Whoever says of this verse, 'Indeed, I am Allah; there is no god but Me, so worship Me' [Ṭāhā 14], that it is created, is a disbeliever. So I went to ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak and told him. He said: Abū Muḥammad spoke the truth, may Allah keep him well; Allah would not command us to worship a created thing.
ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad, al-Sunnah 1/110–111 no. 20; also Ibn Baṭṭah, al-Ibānah 6/37 and 6/318; Masāʾil Abī Dāwūd p. 359
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Qurʾān
Allah, the Exalted, said:
… and Allah spoke to Mūsā with direct speech (taklīman).
Qurʾān 4:164 Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
The claim that 'the Ashʿarīs even believe' the verse Ṭāhā 14 is created needs care. The Ashʿarīs say the eternal speech is uncreated, and that the recited expressions (al-alfāẓ) are created as indications (ʿibārāt) of it. Some, such as al-Rāzī and al-Taftāzānī , say so explicitly; others avoided saying 'the Qurʾān is created' of the muṣḥaf in public. The Atharī argument, through al-Naḍr and Ibn al-Mubārak, is that 'Indeed I am Allah, there is no god but Me' cannot be the speech of a created thing. It applies to anyone who makes these words created, and it should be stated in that conditional form, with the Ashʿarī and Māturīdī texts quoted.
ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad, al-Sunnah
ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad said in al-Sunnah:
534. And my father, may Allah have mercy on him, said: The ḥadīth of Ibn Masʿūd, may Allah be pleased with him: 'When Allah, Mighty and Majestic, speaks, a voice is heard from Him like the dragging of a chain over smooth stone.' My father said: And the Jahmiyyah deny this. And my father said: These are disbelievers who want to deceive people. Whoever claims that Allah, Mighty and Majestic, did not speak is a disbeliever. Indeed, we narrate these ḥadīths as they have come.
ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad, al-Sunnah 1/281 no. 534
Source, chain and authenticity
The continuation ('these are disbelievers … whoever claims Allah did not speak is a disbeliever') specifies whom Aḥmad declares disbelievers: those who deny that Allah speaks. Keep that scope.
Ibn Taymiyyah, Darʾ Taʿāruḍ
Ibn Taymiyyah reported in Darʾ Taʿāruḍ:
Al-Khallāl said: Abū Bakr al-Marrūdhī informed us: I heard Abū ʿAbd Allāh, when it was said to him that ʿAbd al-Wahhāb [al-Warrāq] had spoken and said: 'Whoever claims that Allah spoke to Mūsā without a voice is a Jahmī, an enemy of Allah and an enemy of Islam'. Abū ʿAbd Allāh smiled and said: How excellent is what he said! May Allah keep him well!
Ibn Taymiyyah, Darʾ Taʿāruḍ 2/39; Sharḥ al-ʿAqīdah al-Aṣfahāniyyah p. 68 (11248/64); al-Fatāwā al-Kubrā 6/485; al-Tisʿīniyyah 2/590
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This is a slip in the label. ʿAbd al-Wahhāb is ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam al-Warrāq, a companion of Aḥmad.
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وقال عبد الله بن أحمد: سألت أبي عن قوم يقولون: لما كلم موسى لم يتكلم بصوت، فقال أبي: بلى، تكلم ﵎ بصوت، وهذه الأحاديث نرويها كما جاءت، وحديث ابن مسعود: (إذا تكلم الله بالوحي سمع له صوت كجر السلسلة على الصفوان) قال أبي: والجهمية تنكره، قال أبي: وهؤلاء كفار يريدون أن يموهوا على الناس، من زعم أن الله لم يتكلم فهو كافر، إنما نروي هذه الأحاديث كما جاءت) .
ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad, al-Sunnah
ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad said in al-Sunnah:
533. I asked my father, may Allah have mercy on him, about people who say: When Allah, Mighty and Majestic, spoke to Mūsā, He did not speak with a voice. My father said: Rather, your Lord, Mighty and Majestic, spoke with a voice; these ḥadīths we narrate as they have come.
ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad, al-Sunnah 1/280 no. 533; also Darʾ 2/39
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٥٣٣ - سَأَلْتُ أَبِي ﵀ عَنْ قَوْمٍ، يَقُولُونَ: لَمَّا كَلَّمَ اللَّهُ ﷿ مُوسَى لَمْ يَتَكَلَّمْ بِصَوْتٍ فَقَالَ أَبِي: «بَلَى إِنَّ رَبَّكَ ﷿ تَكَلَّمَ بِصَوْتٍ هَذِهِ الْأَحَادِيثُ نَرْوِيهَا كَمَا جَاءَتْ»
Al-Dārimī, Naqḍ ʿalā al-Marīsī (Ed. al-Shawāmī)
Al-Dārimī said in Naqḍ ʿalā al-Marīsī:
Had you read the Qurʾān and understood its meaning from Allah, you would have known with certainty that He is perceived by a clear sense in this world and the Hereafter: for Mūsā perceived from Him in this world the voice and the speech, and that is [through] one of the greatest of the senses.
al-Dārimī, Naqḍ ʿalā al-Marīsī (ed. al-Shawāmī) p. 160; ed. al-Almaʿī 1/429
Source, chain and authenticity
Context: al-Dārimī is answering al-Marīsī's claim that Allah 'is not perceived by any sense'.
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أَخْبَرَنَا اللهُ فِي كِتَابِهِ أَنَّهُ ذُو سَمْعٍ وَبَصَرٍ، وَيَدَيْنِ، وَوَجْهٍ، وَنَفْسٍ، وَعِلْمٍ، وَكَلَامٍ، وَأَنَّهُ فَوْقَ عَرْشِهِ فَوْقَ سَمَاوَاتِهِ، فَآمَنَّا بِجَمِيعِ مَا وَصَفَ بِهِ نَفْسَهُ كَمَا وَصَفَهُ بِلَا كَيفَ، وَنَفَيْتَهَا أَنْتَ عَنْهُ كُلَّهَا أَجْمَعَ بِعَمَايَاتٍ مِنَ الحُجَجِ، وَتَكْيِيفٍ.
فَادَّعَيْتَ أَنَّ وَجْهَهُ: كُلُّهُ، وَأَنَّهُ لَا يُوصَفُ بِنَفْسٍ، وَأَنَّ سَمْعَهُ: إِدْرَاكُ الصَّوْتِ إِيَّاهُ، وَأَنَّ بَصَرَهُ: مُشَاهَدَةُ الأَلْوَان؛ كَالجِبَالِ وَالحِجَارَةِ وَالأَصْنَامِ الَّتِي تَنْظُرُ إِلَيْكِ بِعُيُونٍ لَا تُبْصِرُ، وَأَنَّ يَدَيْهِ: رِزْقَاهُ، مُوَسَّعُهُ وَمَقْتُورُهُ، وَأَنَّ عِلْمَهُ وَكَلَامَهُ: مَخْلُوقَانِ مُحْدَثَانِ. وَأَنَّ أَسْمَاءَهُ: مُسْتَعَارَةٌ مَخْلُوقَةٌ مُحْدَثَةٌ، وَأَنَّ فَوْقَ عَرْشِهِ مِنْهُ مِثْلَ مَا هُو فيَ أَسْفَلِ سَافِلِينَ، وَأَنَّهُ فِي صِفَاتِهِ، كَقَوْل النَّاس فِي كَذَا، وكَقَوْل العرب فِي كَذَا، تَضْرِبُ لَهُ الأَمْثَالَ تَشْبِيهًا بِغَيْرِ شَكْلِهَا، وَتَمْثِيلًا بِغَيْرِ مِثْلِهَا، فَأَيُّ تَكْيِيفٍ بأَوْحَشَ مِنْ هَذَا؛ إِذْ نَفَيْتَ هَذِهِ الصِّفَاتِ، وَغَيْرَهَا عَنِ اللهِ تَعَالَى بِهَذِهِ الأَمْثَالِ وَالضَّلَالَاتِ المُضِلَّاتِ؟
وَادَّعَيْتَ فِي تَأْوِيلِكَ أَنَّ مَعْبُودَكَ أَصَمُّ لَا يَسْمَعُ، أَبْكَمُ لَا يَتَكَلَّمُ، أَعْمَى لَا يُبْصِرُ، أَجْذَمُ لَا يَدَ لَهُ، مُقْعَدٌ لَا يَقُومُ وَلَا يَتَحَرَّكُ، جَاهِلٌ لَا يَعْلَمُ، مُضْمَحِلٌّ ذَاهِبٌ لَا يُوصَفُ بِحَدٍّ، وَلَا بِنَفْسٍ، وَلَا يُدْرَكُ بِحَاسَّةٍ فِي دَعْوَاكَ.
وَهَذَا خِلَافُ صِفَةِ رَبِّ العَالَمِينَ، فَالحَمْدُ لله الَّذِي مَنَّ عَلَيْنَا بِمَعْرِفَتِهِ، وَطَبَعَ عَلَى قَلْبكَ بِجَهَالَتِهِ، ولَو قد قَرَأْتَ القُرْآنَ وَعَقِلْتَ عَنِ اللهِ مَعْنَاهُ؛ لَعَلِمْتَ يَقِينًا أَنَّهُ يُدْرَكُ بِحَاسَّةٍ بَيِّنَةٍ فِي الدُّنْيَا وَالآخِرَةِ، فَقَدْ أَدْرَكَ مِنْهُ مُوسَى فِي الدُّنْيَا الصَّوْتَ، وَالكَلَامَ، وَهُوَ مِنْ أَعْظَمِ الحَوَاسِّ، قَالَ الله تَعَالَى: ﴿وَكَلَّمَ اللَّهُ مُوسَى تَكْلِيمًا (١٦٤)﴾ [النساء: ١٦٤].
The Recited Qurʾān: The Ashʿarī and Māturīdī Doctrine and the Rulings of the Salaf
The summary is accurate for the later school and is now documented from their own books: al-Rāzī , al-Taftāzānī , al-Juwaynī (OP05), al-Isfarāyīnī (OP06). One refinement: these authors say the recited Qurʾān is 'created by Allah, not composed by creatures' (al-Taftāzānī). 'Not truly spoken by Allah' is the Atharī inference from that, not their wording. Keep the two apart.
Al-Taftāzānī, Sharḥ al-ʿAqāʾid al-Nasafiyyawitness: Al-Khalwatī, Ḥāshiyah ʿalā Muntahā al-Irādāt
Al-Taftāzānī said in Sharḥ al-ʿAqāʾid al-Nasafiyyawitness: al-Khalwatī, Ḥāshiyah ʿalā Muntahā al-Irādāt:
Mawlā Saʿd al-Dīn al-Taftāzānī said: 'The verified position is that the speech of Allah, the Exalted, is a name shared between the eternal inner speech (al-kalām al-nafsī), where the meaning of the attribution [to Allah] is its being an attribute of Allah, the Exalted, and the originated verbal speech composed of sūras and verses, where the meaning of the attribution is that it is created by Allah, the Exalted, not one of the compositions of creatures. As for what occurs in the expression of some of the shaykhs, that it is figurative (majāz), that does not mean it was not coined for the composed text; rather it means that speech, in reality and essentially, is a name for the meaning subsisting in the self…'
al-Taftāzānī, Sharḥ al-ʿAqāʾid al-Nasafiyyawitness: al-Khalwatī, Ḥāshiyah ʿalā Muntahā al-Irādāt 7/250, quoting al-Taftāzānī explicitly. Also quoted in Madhhab Jumhūr al-Ashāʿirah fī al-Qurʾān p. 31
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Quote it: he insists that the recited Qurʾān may not be denied to be 'Allah's speech'.
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قال المولى سعد الدين التفتازاني (٢): (التحقيق: أن كلام اللَّه تعالى اسمٌ مشترك بين الكلام النفسيِّ القديم، ومعنى الإضافة: كونُه صفةً للَّه تعالى، وبين اللفظِ الحادثِ المؤلَّفِ من السور والآيات، ومعنى الإضافة: أنه مخلوق للَّه تعالى، ليس من تأليفات المخلوقين، وما وقع في عبارة بعض المشائخ أنه مجازٌ، فليس معناه أنه غيرُ موضوعٍ للنظمِ المؤلَّف، بل معناه: أن الكلام في التحقيق وبالذات اسمٌ للمعنى القائمِ بالنفس، وتسميةُ اللفظ به، ووضعُه لذلك، إنما هو باعتبار دلالته على المعنى، فلا نزاع لهم في الوضع والتسمية). انتهى (٣). ومنه تعلم ما في
Al-Rāzī, Mafātīḥ al-Ghayb
Al-Rāzī said in Mafātīḥ al-Ghayb:
The answer: 'Qurʾān' is a name applied equivocally to the eternal attribute subsisting in the essence of Allah, the Exalted, and to these letters and sounds. There is no dispute that the words composed of these letters and sounds are originated and created, and the challenge [to produce its like] concerns them, not the eternal attribute.
al-Rāzī, Mafātīḥ al-Ghayb 17/254; also Ibn ʿĀdil, al-Lubāb 10/334
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السُّؤَالُ الْأَوَّلُ: لِمَ قَالَ فِي سُورَةِ البقرة: مِنْ مِثْلِهِ وقال هاهنا: فَأْتُوا بِسُورَةٍ مِثْلِهِ.
وَالْجَوَابُ: أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا ﵇ كَانَ رَجُلًا أُمِّيًّا، لَمْ يُتَلْمَذْ لِأَحَدٍ وَلَمْ يُطَالِعْ كِتَابًا فَقَالَ فِي سُورَةِ الْبَقَرَةِ:
فَأْتُوا بِسُورَةٍ مِنْ مِثْلِهِ يَعْنِي فَلْيَأْتِ إِنْسَانٌ يُسَاوِي مُحَمَّدًا ﵇ فِي عَدَمِ التَّلْمَذِ وَعَدَمِ مُطَالَعَةِ الْكُتُبِ وَعَدَمِ الِاشْتِغَالِ بِالْعُلُومِ بِسُورَةٍ تُسَاوِي هَذِهِ السُّورَةَ، وَحَيْثُ ظَهَرَ الْعَجْزُ ظَهَرَ الْمُعْجِزُ فَهَذَا لَا يَدُلُّ عَلَى أَنَّ السُّورَةَ فِي نَفْسِهَا مُعْجِزَةٌ، وَلَكِنَّهُ يَدُلُّ عَلَى أَنَّ ظُهُورَ مِثْلِ هَذِهِ السُّورَةِ مِنْ إِنْسَانٍ مِثْلِ مُحَمَّدٍ ﵇ فِي عَدَمِ التَّلْمَذِ وَالتَّعَلُّمِ مُعْجِزٌ، ثُمَّ إِنَّهُ تَعَالَى بَيَّنَ فِي هَذِهِ السُّورَةِ أَنَّ تِلْكَ السُّورَةَ فِي نَفْسِهَا مُعْجِزٌ، فَإِنَّ الْخَلْقَ وَإِنْ تَلْمَذُوا وَتَعَلَّمُوا وَطَالَعُوا وَتَفَكَّرُوا، فَإِنَّهُ لَا يُمْكِنُهُمُ الْإِتْيَانُ بِمُعَارَضَةِ سُورَةٍ وَاحِدَةٍ مِنْ هَذِهِ السُّوَرِ، فَلَا جَرَمَ قَالَ تَعَالَى فِي هَذِهِ الْآيَةِ: فَأْتُوا بِسُورَةٍ مِثْلِهِ وَلَا شَكَّ أَنَّ هَذَا تَرْتِيبٌ عَجِيبٌ فِي بَابِ التَّحَدِّي وَإِظْهَارِ الْمُعْجِزِ.
السُّؤَالُ الثَّانِي: قَوْلُهُ: فَأْتُوا بِسُورَةٍ مِثْلِهِ هَلْ يَتَنَاوَلُ جَمِيعَ السُّوَرِ الصِّغَارِ وَالْكِبَارِ، أَوْ يَخْتَصُّ بِالسُّوَرِ الْكِبَارِ.
الْجَوَابُ: هَذِهِ الْآيَةُ فِي سُورَةِ يُونُسَ وَهِيَ مَكِّيَّةٌ، فَالْمُرَادُ مِثْلُ هَذِهِ السُّورَةِ، لِأَنَّهَا أَقْرَبُ مَا يُمْكِنُ أَنْ يُشَارَ إِلَيْهِ.
السُّؤَالُ الثَّالِثُ: أَنَّ الْمُعْتَزِلَةَ تَمَسَّكُوا بِهَذِهِ الْآيَةِ عَلَى أَنَّ الْقُرْآنَ مَخْلُوقٌ، قَالُوا: إِنَّهُ ﵇ تَحَدَّى الْعَرَبَ بِالْقُرْآنِ، وَالْمُرَادُ مِنَ التَّحَدِّي: أَنَّهُ طَلَبَ مِنْهُمُ الْإِتْيَانَ بِمِثْلِهِ، فَإِذَا عَجَزُوا عَنْهُ ظَهَرَ كَوْنُهُ حُجَّةً مِنْ عِنْدِ اللَّه عَلَى صِدْقِهِ، وَهَذَا إِنَّمَا يُمْكِنُ لَوْ كَانَ الْإِتْيَانُ بِمِثْلِهِ صَحِيحَ الْوُجُودِ فِي الْجُمْلَةِ وَلَوْ كَانَ قَدِيمًا لَكَانَ الْإِتْيَانُ بِمِثْلِ الْقَدِيمِ مُحَالًا فِي نَفْسِ الْأَمْرِ، فَوَجَبَ أَنْ لَا يَصِحَّ التَّحَدِّي.
وَالْجَوَابُ: أَنَّ الْقُرْآنَ اسْمٌ يُقَالُ بِالِاشْتِرَاكِ عَلَى الصِّفَةِ الْقَدِيمَةِ الْقَائِمَةِ بِذَاتِ اللَّه تَعَالَى، وَعَلَى هَذِهِ الْحُرُوفِ وَالْأَصْوَاتِ، وَلَا نِزَاعَ فِي أَنَّ الْكَلِمَاتِ الْمُرَكَّبَةَ مِنْ هَذِهِ الْحُرُوفِ وَالْأَصْوَاتِ مُحْدَثَةٌ مَخْلُوقَةٌ، وَالتَّحَدِّي إِنَّمَا وَقَعَ بِهَا لَا بِالصِّفَةِ الْقَدِيمَةِ.أَمَّا قَوْلُهُ: وَادْعُوا مَنِ اسْتَطَعْتُمْ مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ صادِقِينَ فَالْمُرَادُ مِنْهُ: تَعْلِيمُ أَنَّهُ كَيْفَ يُمْكِنُ الْإِتْيَانُ بِهَذِهِ الْمُعَارَضَةِ لَوْ كَانُوا قَادِرِينَ عَلَيْهَا، وَتَقْرِيرُهُ أَنَّ الْجَمَاعَةَ إِذَا تَعَاوَنَتْ وَتَعَاضَدَتْ صَارَتْ تِلْكَ الْعُقُولُ الْكَثِيرَةُ كَالْعَقْلِ الْوَاحِدِ، فَإِذَا تَوَجَّهُوا نَحْوَ شَيْءٍ وَاحِدٍ، قَدَرَ مَجْمُوعُهُمْ عَلَى مَا يَعْجَزُ كُلُّ وَاحِدٍ مِنْهُمْ، فَكَأَنَّهُ تَعَالَى يَقُولُ: هَبْ أَنَّ عَقْلَ الْوَاحِدِ وَالِاثْنَيْنِ مِنْكُمْ لَا يَفِي بِاسْتِخْرَاجِ مُعَارَضَةِ الْقُرْآنِ فَاجْتَمِعُوا وَلْيُعِنْ بَعْضُكُمْ بَعْضًا فِي هَذِهِ الْمُعَارَضَةِ، فَإِذَا عَرَفْتُمْ عَجْزَكُمْ حَالَةَ الِاجْتِمَاعِ وَحَالَةَ الِانْفِرَادِ عَنْ هَذِهِ الْمُعَارَضَةِ، فَحِينَئِذٍ يَظْهَرُ أَنَّ تَعَذُّرَ هَذِهِ
ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad, al-Sunnah
ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad reported in al-Sunnah:
20. Abū ʿAmr Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Abī Rizma narrated to me, saying: I heard Abū al-Wazīr Muḥammad ibn Aʿyan say: I heard al-Naḍr ibn Muḥammad say: Whoever says of this verse, 'Indeed, I am Allah; there is no god but Me, so worship Me' [Ṭāhā 14], that it is created, is a disbeliever. So I went to ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak and told him. He said: Abū Muḥammad spoke the truth, may Allah keep him well; Allah would not command us to worship a created thing.
ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad, al-Sunnah 1/110–111 no. 20; also Ibn Baṭṭah, al-Ibānah 6/37 and 6/318; Masāʾil Abī Dāwūd p. 359
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Ibn Ḥajar, Fatḥ al-Bārī
Ibn Ḥajar said in Fatḥ al-Bārī:
وَيُحْكَى عَنْ أَبِي مَنْصُورٍ الْمَاتُرِيدِيِّ مِنَ الْحَنَفِيَّةِ نَحْوُهُ لَكِنْ قَالَ: خَلَقَ صَوْتًا حِينَ نَادَاهُ فَأَسْمَعَهُ كَلَامَهُ
…and that His speaking to whomever He spoke to is only the creation of a perception in him by which he hears the speech; and His call to Mūsā has always been, but He made him hear that call when He spoke to him intimately. And something similar is related (yuḥkā) from Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī of the Ḥanafīs, except that he said: He created a sound when He called him, and made him hear His speech.
Ibn Ḥajar, Fatḥ al-Bārī 13/455
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The sentence before ('His speaking … is only the creation of a perception…') is Ibn Ḥajar's summary of the Kullābī/Ashʿarī position (cf. OP07, al-Ghazālī).
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The whole page in Arabic
وَيُحْكَى عَنْ أَبِي مَنْصُورٍ الْمَاتُرِيدِيِّ مِنَ الْحَنَفِيَّةِ نَحْوُهُ لَكِنْ قَالَ: خَلَقَ صَوْتًا حِينَ نَادَاهُ فَأَسْمَعَهُ كَلَامَهُ، وَزَعَمَ بَعْضُهُمْ أَنَّ هَذَا هُوَ مُرَادُ السَّلَفِ الَّذِينَ قَالُوا: إِنَّ الْقُرْآنَ لَيْسَ بِمَخْلُوقٍ، وَأَخَذَ بِقَوْلِ ابْنِ كِلَابٍ الْقَابِسِيِّ، وَالْأَشْعَرِيِّ وَأَتْبَاعِهِمَا وَقَالُوا: إِذَا كَانَ الْكَلَامُ قَدِيمًا لِعَيْنِهِ لَازِمًا لِذَاتِ الرَّبِّ وَثَبَتَ أَنَّهُ لَيْسَ بِمَخْلُوقٍ فَالْحُرُوفُ لَيْسَتْ قَدِيمَةً؛ لِأَنَّهَا مُتَعَاقِبَةٌ، وَمَا كَانَ مَسْبُوقًا بِغَيْرِهِ لَمْ يَكُنْ قَدِيمًا، وَالْكَلَامُ الْقَدِيمُ مَعْنًى قَائِمٌ بِالذَّاتِ لَا يَتَعَدَّدُ وَلَا يَتَجَزَّأُ بَلْ هُوَ مَعْنًى وَاحِدٌ إِنْ عَبَّرَ عَنْهُ بِالْعَرَبِيَّةِ فَهُوَ قُرْآنٌ أَوْ بِالْعِبْرَانِيَّةِ فَهُوَ تَوْرَاةٌ مَثَلًا وَذَهَبَ بَعْضُ الْحَنَابِلَةِ وَغَيْرُهُمْ إِلَى أَنَّ الْقُرْآنَ الْعَرَبِيَّ كَلَامُ اللَّهِ وَكَذَا التَّوْرَاةُ، وَأَنَّ اللَّهَ لَمْ يَزَلْ مُتَكَلِّمًا إِذَا شَاءَ وَأَنَّهُ تَكَلَّمَ بِحُرُوفِ الْقُرْآنِ وَأَسْمَعَ مَنْ شَاءَ مِنَ الْمَلَائِكَةِ وَالْأَنْبِيَاءِ صَوْتَهُ، وَقَالُوا: إِنَّ هَذِهِ الْحُرُوفَ وَالْأَصْوَاتَ قَدِيمَةُ الْعَيْنِ لَازِمَةُ الذَّاتِ لَيْسَتْ مُتَعَاقِبَةً بَلْ لَمْ تَزَلْ قَائِمَةً بِذَاتِهِ مُقْتَرِنَةً لَا تُسْبَقُ، وَالتَّعَاقُبُ إِنَّمَا يَكُونُ فِي حَقِّ الْمَخْلُوقِ بِخِلَافِ الْخَالِقِ، وَذَهَبَ أَكْثَرُ هَؤُلَاءِ إِلَى أَنَّ الْأَصْوَاتَ وَالْحُرُوفَ هِيَ الْمَسْمُوعَةُ مِنَ الْقَارِئِينَ، وَأَبَى ذَلِكَ كَثِيرٌ مِنْهُمْ فَقَالُوا لَيْسَتْ هِيَ الْمَسْمُوعَةُ مِنَ الْقَارِئِينَ، وَذَهَبَ بَعْضُهُمْ إِلَى أَنَّهُ مُتَكَلِّمٌ بِالْقُرْآنِ الْعَرَبِيِّ بِمَشِيئَتِهِ وَقُدْرَتِهِ بِالْحُرُوفِ وَالْأَصْوَاتِ الْقَائِمَةِ بِذَاتِهِ وَهُوَ غَيْرُ مَخْلُوقٍ لَكِنَّهُ فِي الْأَزَلِ لَمْ يَتَكَلَّمْ لِامْتِنَاعِ وُجُودِ الْحَادِثِ فِي الْأَزَلِ، فَكَلَامُهُ حَادِثٌ فِي ذَاتِهِ لَا مُحْدَثٌ، وَذَهَبَ الْكَرَّامِيَّةُ إِلَى أَنَّهُ حَادِثٌ فِي ذَاتِهِ وَمُحْدَثٌ، وَذَكَرَ الْفَخْرُ الرَّازِيُّ فِي الْمَطَالِبِ الْعَالِيَةِ أَنَّ قَوْلَ مَنْ قَالَ: إِنَّهُ تَعَالَى مُتَكَلِّمٌ بِكَلَامٍ يَقُومُ بِذَاتِهِ وَبِمَشِيئَتِهِ وَاخْتِيَارِهِ هُوَ أَصَحُّ الْأَقْوَالِ نَقْلًا وَعَقْلًا، وَأَطَالَ فِي تَقْرِيرِ ذَلِكَ، وَالْمَحْفُوظُ عَنْ جُمْهُورِ السَّلَفِ تَرْكُ الْخَوْضِ فِي ذَلِكَ وَالتَّعَمُّقِ فِيهِ وَالِاقْتِصَارُ عَلَى الْقَوْلِ بِأَنَّ الْقُرْآنَ كَلَامُ اللَّهِ وَأَنَّهُ غَيْرُ مَخْلُوقٍ ثُمَّ السُّكُوتُ عَمَّا وَرَاءَ ذَلِكَ، وَسَيَأْتِي الْكَلَامُ عَلَى مَسْأَلَةِ اللَّفْظِ حَيْثُ ذَكَرَهُ الْمُصَنِّفُ بَعْدُ إِنْ شَاءَ اللَّهُ تَعَالَى.قَوْلُهُ (وَقَالَ جَلَّ ذِكْرُهُ: ﴿مَنْ ذَا الَّذِي يَشْفَعُ عِنْدَهُ إِلا بِإِذْنِهِ﴾ زَعَمَ ابْنُ بَطَّالٍ أَنَّهُ أَشَارَ بِذَلِكَ إِلَى سَبَبِ النُّزُولِ؛ لِأَنَّهُ جَاءَ أَنَّهُمْ لَمَّا قَالُوا: شُفَعَاؤُنَا عِنْدَ اللَّهِ الْأَصْنَامُ نَزَلَتْ. فَأَعْلَمَ اللَّهُ أَنَّ الَّذِينَ يَشْفَعُونَ عِنْدَهُ مِنَ الْمَلَائِكَةِ وَالْأَنْبِيَاءِ إِنَّمَا يَشْفَعُونَ فِيمَنْ يَشْفَعُونَ فِيهِ بَعْدَ إِذْنِهِ لَهُمْ فِي ذَلِكَ انْتَهَى.
وَلَمْ أَقِفْ عَلَى نَقْلٍ فِي هَذِهِ الْآيَةِ بِخُصُوصِهَا، وَأَظُنُّ الْبُخَارِيَّ أَشَارَ بِهَذَا إِلَى تَرْجِيحِ قَوْلِ مَنْ قَالَ: إِنَّ الضَّمِيرَ فِي قَوْلِهِ عَنْ قُلُوبِهِمْ لِلْمَلَائِكَةِ وَإنَّ فَاعِلَ الشَّفَاعَةِ فِي قَوْلِهِ وَلَا تَنْفَعُ الشَّفَاعَةُ هُمُ الْمَلَائِكَةُ بِدَلِيلِ قَوْلِهِ بَعْدَ وَصْفِ الْمَلَائِكَةِ ﴿وَلا يَشْفَعُونَ إِلا لِمَنِ ارْتَضَى وَهُمْ مِنْ خَشْيَتِهِ مُشْفِقُونَ﴾ بِخِلَافِ قَوْلِ مَنْ زَعَمَ أَنَّ الضَّمِيرَ لِلْكُفَّارِ الْمَذْكُورِينَ فِي قَوْلِهِ تَعَالَى ﴿وَلَقَدْ صَدَّقَ عَلَيْهِمْ إِبْلِيسُ ظَنَّهُ فَاتَّبَعُوهُ﴾ كَمَا نَقَلَهُ بَعْضُ الْمُفَسِّرِينَ، وَزَعَمَ أَنَّ الْمُرَادَ بِالتَّفْزِيعِ حَالَةُ مُفَارَقَةِ الْحَيَاةِ، وَيَكُونُ اتِّبَاعُهُمْ إِيَّاهُ مُسْتَصْحَبًا
Fatḥ Allāh Khulayf or Bekir Topaloğlu) and quote the passage on Mūsā. Until then, write: 'Ibn Ḥajar reports that al-Māturīdī said…'.
Overstatement, recorded verbatim but not to be carried over. No one among the Salaf named al-Māturīdī, who died in 333. What the evidence supports is conditional: ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Warrāq, with Aḥmad's approval, said that whoever claims Allah spoke to Mūsā without a voice is a Jahmī . Applying that to a named later scholar requires (i) his own text, not a report , and (ii) the conditions the scholars set for ruling on a specific person (taʿyīn) as opposed to a statement (al-qawl). Do not say 'X is a kāfir'.
Ibn Taymiyyah, Darʾ Taʿāruḍ
Ibn Taymiyyah reported in Darʾ Taʿāruḍ:
Al-Khallāl said: Abū Bakr al-Marrūdhī informed us: I heard Abū ʿAbd Allāh, when it was said to him that ʿAbd al-Wahhāb [al-Warrāq] had spoken and said: 'Whoever claims that Allah spoke to Mūsā without a voice is a Jahmī, an enemy of Allah and an enemy of Islam'. Abū ʿAbd Allāh smiled and said: How excellent is what he said! May Allah keep him well!
Ibn Taymiyyah, Darʾ Taʿāruḍ 2/39; Sharḥ al-ʿAqīdah al-Aṣfahāniyyah p. 68 (11248/64); al-Fatāwā al-Kubrā 6/485; al-Tisʿīniyyah 2/590
Source, chain and authenticity
This is a slip in the label. ʿAbd al-Wahhāb is ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam al-Warrāq, a companion of Aḥmad.
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The whole page in Arabic
وقال عبد الله بن أحمد: سألت أبي عن قوم يقولون: لما كلم موسى لم يتكلم بصوت، فقال أبي: بلى، تكلم ﵎ بصوت، وهذه الأحاديث نرويها كما جاءت، وحديث ابن مسعود: (إذا تكلم الله بالوحي سمع له صوت كجر السلسلة على الصفوان) قال أبي: والجهمية تنكره، قال أبي: وهؤلاء كفار يريدون أن يموهوا على الناس، من زعم أن الله لم يتكلم فهو كافر، إنما نروي هذه الأحاديث كما جاءت) .
Correct in substance and now sourced: al-Rāzī says the composed words are 'originated and created' (OP12), and al-Taftāzānī says the recited Qurʾān is 'created by Allah' (OP11). Ṭāhā 14 is among those words, so on their view its wording is created, while the eternal meaning is not. The argument from al-Naḍr and Ibn al-Mubārak ('Allah would not command us to worship a created thing') therefore applies to the wording of the verse as these authors define it.
ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad, al-Sunnah
ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad said in al-Sunnah:
534. And my father, may Allah have mercy on him, said: The ḥadīth of Ibn Masʿūd, may Allah be pleased with him: 'When Allah, Mighty and Majestic, speaks, a voice is heard from Him like the dragging of a chain over smooth stone.' My father said: And the Jahmiyyah deny this. And my father said: These are disbelievers who want to deceive people. Whoever claims that Allah, Mighty and Majestic, did not speak is a disbeliever. Indeed, we narrate these ḥadīths as they have come.
ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad, al-Sunnah 1/281 no. 534
Source, chain and authenticity
The continuation ('these are disbelievers … whoever claims Allah did not speak is a disbeliever') specifies whom Aḥmad declares disbelievers: those who deny that Allah speaks. Keep that scope.
Sources
- Abū Dāwūd, al-Sunan
- An answer of the imams of the Najdī daʿwah preserved in al-Durar al-Saniyyah, Kitāb al-Asmāʾ wa-l-Ṣifāt
- Ibn Taymiyyah, Darʾ Taʿāruḍ
- Ibn Taymiyyah, Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā
- Ibn Taymiyyah, as compiled in al-Munāẓarāt al-ʿAqadiyyah li-Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah p
- Ibn Taymiyyah, al-ʿAqīdah al-Wāsiṭiyyah, in Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā
- Ibn Ḥajar, Fatḥ al-Bārī
- Qurʾān
- al-Bukhārī, Khalq Afʿāl al-ʿIbād
- al-Bukhārī, al-Adab al-Mufrad
- al-Bukhārī, al-Ṣaḥīḥ (al-Sulṭāniyyah)
- al-Bukhārī, al-Ṣaḥīḥ (al-Sulṭāniyyah), Kitāb al-Tawḥīd
- al-Dārimī, Naqḍ ʿalā al-Marīsī (ed. al-Shawāmī)
- al-Jawharī, al-Ṣiḥāḥ
- al-Rāghib al-Aṣfahānī, al-Mufradāt fī Gharīb al-Qurʾān
- al-Rāzī, Mafātīḥ al-Ghayb
- al-Taftāzānī, Sharḥ al-ʿAqāʾid al-Nasafiyyawitness: al-Khalwatī, Ḥāshiyah ʿalā Muntahā al-Irādāt
- ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad, al-Sunnah