Belief of Ahl al Sunnah that the speech of Allah is uncreated and sent down
Ahl al Sunnah wal Jamaah believe that the speech of Allah is not created, rather it comes from Him and is sent down to His creation. The proof is His saying:
إِنَّا نَحْنُ نَزَّلْنَا الذِّكْرَ وَإِنَّا لَهُ لَحَافِظُونَ
“Indeed We, We sent down the Reminder, and indeed We will surely guard it.” (al Hijr 15 9)
The Reminder here is the speech of Allah, and because He sent it down and promised to protect it, Ahl al Sunnah use this as a clear proof that His speech is not created.
The Quran as speech with real letters and words
Ahl al Sunnah wal Jamaah hold that the Quran, with its words and its letters, is truly the speech of Allah and not created. Anyone who believes that it is the speech of Allah and that it is not created must accept that it has letters, because what we recite as Quran is made of letters and words. (Majmu Fatawa 6/528 to 529)
They use as proof the hadith in Sahih Muslim about the virtue of Surat al Fatiha and the last verses of al Baqarah, where it is said that a person does not read a single letter from them except that a reward is written for him. (Sahih Muslim, chapter on the virtue of al Fatiha and the last verses of al Baqarah)
In the well known hadith, the Prophet said that he does not say that “Alif Lam Mim” is one letter, but that Alif is a letter, Lam is a letter, and Mim is a letter. This shows that the Quran is counted as letters that are read and rewarded. (Tirmidhi, hadith on the letters of the Quran)
The speech of Allah is heard as sound by those He addresses
Ahl al Sunnah also affirm that Allah speaks in a real way that is heard, and that His speech is with a sound. Jibril, Adam, Musa and Muhammad, peace be upon them all, heard His speech, and the people of Paradise will hear it as well. (Mukhtasar al Sawaiq 465 to 468)
Allah said to Musa:
فَاسْتَمِعْ لِمَا يُوحَى إِنَّنِي أَنَا اللَّهُ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا أَنَا فَاعْبُدْنِي وَأَقِمِ الصَّلَاةَ لِذِكْرِي
“So listen to what is revealed. Indeed, I am Allah, there is no god except Me, so worship Me and establish the prayer for My remembrance.” (Ta Ha:13-14)
This shows that Musa actually heard the speech of Allah. If it had only been something placed in his heart as an inner feeling, there would be no special meaning in calling him al Kalim, the one spoken to by Allah. (Ta Ha:13-14)
The meaning of nida as raised voice and real sound
The word nida, which appears often in the Quran and Sunnah for the calls of Allah, in Arabic only means a raised sound. Ibn Taymiyyah explains that nida in the Arabic language is a raised sound, and that the word is not used for something that is not sound, neither in its basic meaning nor in any figurative meaning. (Majmu Fatawa 6/531)
Ibn al Qayyim says that the phrase al nida al ilahi, the call from Allah, is one of the cases that people think might be metaphor, but it is not metaphor. The Quran and Sunnah repeat this expression in many places and forms that do not allow it to be taken as anything other than a real call.
Allah informed us that He called the two parents in the Garden, that He called His servant Musa, and that He will call His servants on the Day of Resurrection, and He mentioned His own nida in nine places in the Quran. (Mukhtasar al Sawaiq 465-466)
Ibn al Qayyim says there is no need to add “with a voice” every time, because voice is already inside the meaning of nida according to the people of the language. When voice is not present, nida is not present. The texts that add “with a voice” only do so for extra clarity, like the way Allah said “And Allah spoke to Musa directly” to stress the reality of speech. (Mukhtasar al Sawaiq 465- 466; al Nisa: 164)
Lexical proofs that Nida means voice and sound
The early Arabic dictionaries support this meaning. Ibn Duraid says that nida is the verbal noun of “naadaytuhu” and “munaadatan,” and that nida is the calling of the voice after it has reached its range. (Jumharat al Lugha 3/245)
Al Jawhari says that nida is the sound, and that “naadaahu munaadatan wa nidaan” means he shouted at him. (Taj al Lugha wa al Sihah 255-256)
Al Raghib says that nida is raising the voice and making it appear, and that this can be said even for the bare sound itself. (Mufradat alfaz al Quran 486)
Ibn Manzur explains that nida is supplication with the highest voice, and that nida with different vowels is the sound, like supplication and the bleating of camels. (Lisan al Arab 15/315)
Az Zabidi gathers these statements and says that al Sihah defines nida as sound, and that al Raghib defines it as raising the bare sound. (Taj al Arus 20/233)
From this, the verses where Allah says He called Adam and Hawwa, Ibrahim, and Musa from the side of the mountain and in the holy valley Tuwa, and the verses where He says He will call the people on the Day of Resurrection, all carry the meaning of a real call with a sound that is heard. (al Araf 7 22; al Saffat 37 104 to 105; Maryam 19 52; al Naziat 79 16 to 17; al Qasas 28 62)
Hadith reports that revelation is heard as a sound
Al Bukhari records the hadith of Abu Saeed al Khudri in which the Prophet said that Allah will say on the Day of Resurrection: “O Adam.” Adam will answer, and then “He will call out with a voice: Allah commands you to bring out from your offspring a group for the Fire.” This is an explicit use of the word voice for the speech of Allah, and the Salaf used it as a proof that His speech is with sound. (Bukhari 4741; Bukhari 7518; Fath al Bari 13/468)
In another hadith, when Allah decrees a matter in the heaven, the angels strike their wings in humility at His saying, and they hear a sound like a chain on smooth stone. When fear is removed from their hearts they ask: “What did your Lord say,” and it is said: “The truth, and He is the Most High, the Most Great.” (Bukhari 4800; Fath al Bari 8 4701 and 4800; Tirmidhi 3223; Ibn Majah 194; Nasai in the Book of Tafsir)
Abu Dawud narrates that when Allah speaks with wahy, the people of the heaven hear a sound like the dragging of a chain on smooth stone, so they fall down until Jibril comes to them, then when fear leaves them they ask him, and he says: “He said the truth.” The scholars of hadith judged this chain to be authentic according to the conditions of Bukhari and Muslim. (Sunan Abu Dawud 4738; Ibn Khuzaymah at Tawhid 15 to 16; Bayhaqi al Asma wa al Sifat 200; al Albani, al Silsilah as Sahihah)
Ibn Abbas explained the verse “Until, when fear is removed from their hearts, they say: What did your Lord say.
They say: The truth” by saying that when Allah gives wahy to Muhammad, He calls the messenger from among the angels, and the angels hear the voice of al Jabbar as He speaks with the wahy. When the covering is lifted from their hearts they ask what He said and are told “the truth,” and he described the sound of the wahy as like iron on smooth stone. (Saba 34 23; Tafsir Ibn Mardawayh; Tafsir Ibn Jarir 22 72; Ibn Mandah, Kitab at Tawhid 3/131)
Abd Allah ibn al Mubarak narrates from Bahz ibn Hakim, from his father, from his grandfather, that when Jibril comes down with wahy to the Messenger of Allah, the people of the heavens hear the sound of the wahy like the strongest sound of iron on smooth stone, and Jibril says that he has been commanded with the speech of Allah in an Arabic tongue. (Ibn Mandah, Kitab at Tawhid 3/131; Mukhtasar al Sawaiq 465-468)
Al Bukhari also cites the hadith of Abdullah ibn Anis that on the Day of Resurrection, Allah will gather the slaves and call them “with a voice that whoever is near hears,” saying “I am the King, I am the Dayyan,” and that no one will enter Paradise while there is a wrong still due from him. This shows plainly that Allah calls with a voice that is heard. (Bukhari, Khalq Afal al Ibad 2/49- 50; al Adab al Mufrad 370 no 79; Musnad Ahmad 3495; Ibn Abi Asim al Sunnah 225; Hakim al Mustadrak 2400, 37, 438, 4500, 74, 575; Mukhtasar al Sawaiq 467)
Statements of the Salaf and later imams on letters and sound
The Salaf spoke clearly that the Quran is the speech of Allah with letters and sound. Al Dhahabi reports with a sound chain the hadith “I am as My servant thinks of Me,” in which Allah says that He remembers His servant when the servant remembers Him inwardly and in a gathering, and that He comes nearer to him when the servant comes nearer.
Al Dhahabi points out that this hadith shows a clear difference between inner remembrance and spoken remembrance, and that Allah speaks with this and with that. He is the One who spoke to Musa directly and called him from Mount Sinai. (al Uluw 56 to 57)
Al Asbahani reports from Salih ibn Ahmad and Hanbal that Imam Ahmad said: Jibril heard the Quran from Allah, then the Prophet heard it from Jibril, then the companions heard it from the Prophet. Abu Bakr said: “It is not my speech, nor the speech of my companion. It is only the speech of Allah.” This only has meaning because he recited it to the people with letters and sound as speech that comes from Allah. (Al Hujjah fi Bayan al Mahajjah 1 332 to 333)
Ibn Taymiyyah explains that the first to deny that Allah speaks with sound was Abdullah ibn Saeed ibn Kullab in the middle of the third century. He affirmed the attributes to refute the Jahmiyyah and the Muʿtazilah, but he thought that anything eternal cannot be letters and sounds because letters and sounds come one after another.
So he made the eternal speech of Allah a single meaning, not letters and sounds, and said that Allah does not speak with sound and letter. A group followed him, but Imam Ahmad, his companions, and al Bukhari and others opposed this view. (Al Hujjah fi Bayan al Mahajjah 1/332 to 333; Mukhtasar al Sawaiq 368-370)
Later, some mutakallimun said that the speech of Allah is only one meaning in Himself. If that meaning is expressed in Hebrew, they called it the Torah, and if it is expressed in Arabic, they called it the Quran, and they said the letters of the Quran are created and not from His speech. In reply, another group said that the Quran is letters and sounds, and some people misunderstood them and thought they meant ink and human voices, which no scholar said. (Majmu Fatawa 12/243-244)
Ibn Taymiyyah clarifies that the correct view of the Salaf is that the entire Quran is the speech of Allah. Its letters and its meanings are all His speech, and none of it is the speech of anyone else. The name Quran is for both letters and meanings together, just as all speech in common use is not only letters and not only meanings, and just as a person is not only a spirit and not only a body. (Majmu Fatawa 12/243-244)
He also says that Allah speaks with sound, as the authentic hadiths show, but His sound is not like the sounds of the servants, and it is not the sound of the reciter or any other created sound. Just as His essence, His knowledge, His power, and His life are not like those of the creation, His speech, His meanings, His letters, and His sound are not like the speech, meanings, letters, and sounds of the creation. Whoever makes Allah similar to His creation, or denies what He described Himself with, has gone astray from the path of Ahl al Sunnah. (Majmu Fatawa 12/243 -244)
He further notes that the majority of the groups in the ummah say that Allah speaks with a voice, even though they differ on whether His speech is created or eternal, or whether it subsists in His essence. The Muʿtazilah, the Karramiyyah, the Shia, most of the Murjiʿah, the Salimiyyah, and many Hanafis, Malikis, Shafiis, Hanbalis and Sufis all say that Allah speaks with a voice. No group among the Muslims denied this except Ibn Kullab and those who followed him, and no group before them said that speech is only a single meaning in the self. (Majmu Fatawa 6/528-529)
Defence of this creed among the Shafii imams
Ibn Taymiyyah also relates that the great Shafii imam Abu Hamid al Isfarayini used to publicly declare on his way to Jumuah that the Quran is the speech of Allah and not created, “as Imam Ahmad said, and not as al Baqillani says.”
He did this to make it known that he was free from the creed of those who said that the letters of the Quran are created and that the true speech is only an inner meaning. (Dar Ta arud al Aql wa al Naql 2/96-98)
He was so strong against ahl al kalam that he separated the usul of Imam al Shafii from the usul of al Ashari, and later scholars like Abu Ishaq al Shirazi followed him.
They would even mark any agreement with al Ashari and refuse to count the Asharis among the true companions of al Shafii in usul. This shows that the creed that the Quran is uncreated speech with letters and sound was defended by leading imams across the madhhabs. (Dar Ta arud al Aql wa al Naql 2/96-98)
Ahl al Sunnah wal Jamaah believe that the speech of Allah is not created, rather it is sent down. The proof is His saying:
“إِنَّا نَحْنُ نَزَّلْنَا الذِّكْرَ وَإِنَّا لَهُ لَحَافِظُونَ”
“Indeed We, We sent down the Reminder, and indeed We will surely guard it.” (al Hijr 15:9)
The Reminder is the speech of Allah. So do you believe that the speech of Allah is created. We want an answer if you would be kind.
Ahl al Sunnah wal Jamaah also believe that the speech of Allah is made up of letters and that it is with a sound that is heard, and that He speaks with what He wills when He wills.
Affirming that the speech of Allah is with letters
No one denies this except the one who says that the Quran with its words and its letters is not really the speech of Allah, and that it is created.
As for the one who believes that it is the speech of Allah and not created, he affirms letters, because this Quran contains letters.
In Sahih Muslim, in the chapter on the virtue of Surat al Fatiha and the last verses of al Baqarah, there is the wording: “You will not read a letter from them except that you will be given it.”
In the well known hadith: “I do not say that Alif Lam Mim is one letter, but Alif is a letter, Lam is a letter and Mim is a letter.”
Affirming that Allah Most High speaks
His speech is with a sound that is heard. Jibril, Adam, Musa and Muhammad, peace be upon them all, heard it, and the people of Paradise will hear it.
This is something that Ahl al Sunnah wal Jamaah believe, because it is established in the Book and the Sunnah.
Here are some of the proofs.
- Allah Most High said to Musa, peace be upon him:
“فَاسْتَمِعْ لِمَا يُوحَى، إِنَّنِي أَنَا اللَّهُ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا أَنَا فَاعْبُدْنِي وَأَقِمِ الصَّلَاةَ لِذِكْرِي”
“So listen to what is revealed. Indeed, I am Allah, there is no god except Me, so worship Me and establish the prayer for My remembrance.” (Ta Ha 20:13–14)
This shows that Musa heard the speech of Allah Most High. If it had only been something thrown into his heart as inspiration, then there would be no difference between him and others, and he would not be singled out with the title al Kalim (the one spoken to by Allah).
- The wording of nida (calling out) in the Quran and the Sunnah.
Nida in the Arabic language does not occur except with a sound.
Shaykh al Islam (Ibn Taymiyyah) said in Majmu Fatawa 6/531:
“Nida in the Arabic language is a raised sound.
The word nida is not used for something that is not a sound, neither in the true meaning nor in the figurative meaning.”
Ibn al Qayyim said in Mukhtasar al Sawaiq page 465-466: The tenth example of what is thought to be metaphor but is not metaphor is the word al nida al ilahi (the divine call). It is repeated in The Qur’an and the sunnah with constant repetition in its different places, and in varied forms that do not allow it to be taken as metaphor.
Allah the Exalted informed us that He called the two parents in the Garden, and that He called His kaleem (the one whom He addressed with speech) Musa, and that He will call His servants on the Day of Resurrection. He, glorified is He, has mentioned the nida (call) in nine places in the Quran, and in them He informed about His own calling.
There is no need to restrict the nida (call) by saying that it is with a voice, because voice is included in its meaning and its reality according to the agreement of the people of the language. When the voice is absent, the nida is absent without any doubt.
For this reason its clarification came in the authentic hadith which reached us from the sahabah and the tabiun and those who followed them, and the rest of the ummah (nation) accepted it. Restricting it with the word “voice” is only to make it clearer and to stress it, just as speaking was stressed with the verbal noun in His saying: “And Allah spoke to Musa directly.” (Surah An Nisa verse 164).
They say: The truth, and He is the Most High, the Most Great.” (Al Nasai narrated this in at tafsir (the Book of Tafsir), and Ibn Majah and Abu Dawud and al Tirmidhi also narrated it. Al Tirmidhi said: it is a good authentic hadith. (Al Bukhari recorded it in Bukhari 4800, Fath al Bari 8 4701 4800, from the hadith of Abu Hurayrah, and in the Book of Tawhid, Fath al Bari 13 7481. Al Tirmidhi 3223 and Ibn Majah 194)
The sahabah have explained this verse in a way that agrees with this authentic hadith. Abu Bakr ibn Mardawayh said in his Tafsir: Ahmad ibn Kamil ibn Khalaf narrated to us, he said: Muhammad ibn Kamil ibn Khalaf narrated to us, he said: Muhammad ibn Saad narrated to us, he said: my father narrated to us, he said: my uncle narrated to us, he said: my father narrated to us, from his father, from his grandfather, from Ibn Abbas about His saying, the Exalted: “Until, when fear is removed from their hearts, they say: What did your Lord say. They say: The truth, and He is the Most High, the Most Great.”
He said: When al Jabbar (the Compeller), majestic is His greatness, gave wahy (revelation) to Muhammad, Allah called the messenger from among the angels to send him with the wahy (revelation). The angels heard the voice of al Jabbar (the Compeller) as He was speaking with the wahy (revelation).
When the covering was lifted from their hearts, they asked him about what Allah the Exalted had said. They said: The truth. They knew that Allah the Exalted only says truth, and that He carries out what He has promised.
Ibn Abbas said: The sound of the wahy (revelation) is like the sound of iron on smooth stone. When they heard it they fell down in prostration. When they raised their heads they said: What did your Lord say. They said: The truth. He is the Most High, the Most Great. (Ibn Mardawayh mentioned it in his Tafsir, and Ibn Jarir at Tabari mentioned it in his Tafsir 22 72.)
This is a well known chain, by which Ibn Jarir, and Ibn Abi Hatim, and Abd ibn Humayd, and others, narrate tafsir and other things from Ibn Abbas. It is a chain that is common among the people of knowledge, and they are trustworthy.
And Abd Allah ibn al Mubarak said: Bahz ibn Hakim narrated to us, from his father, from his grandfather, that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said:
“When Jibril comes down with al wahy (revelation) upon the Messenger of Allah, the people of the heavens become afraid because of his descent, and they hear the sound of al wahy (revelation) like the strongest sound there can be of iron on smooth stone.
Every time he passes by the people of a heaven, fear is removed from their hearts, and they say: O Jibril, with what have you been commanded. He says: With the kalam (speech) of Allah in an Arabic tongue.” (In its chain is Bahz ibn Hakim. Al Hafiz said in at Taqrib: he is truthful. I say: the hadith is good, if Allah wills, because of its supporting reports in the two hadiths mentioned earlier.).”
Many arabic dictionariest attest to what Imam Ibn Al Qayyim is saying here about nidaa.
Ibn Duraid, Jumharat al Lugha, vol 3 p 245
النداء مصدرُ ناديتُه منادةً ونداءً، والنداءُ نداءُ الصوت، وهو بعدَ مَداه
“Al nidaa is the verbal noun of ‘naadaytuhu’ and ‘munaadatan’ and ‘nidaa’.
Al nidaa is the calling of the voice after it has reached its range.”
Al Jawhari, Taj al Lugha wa al Sihah, pp 255 to 256
النداءُ: الصوتُ، وقد يُضمُّ مثلَ الدعاءِ والرغاءِ، وناداه مناداةً ونداءً، أي صاحَ به
“Al nidaa is the sound.
It may also be read with damma, like ‘duaa’ and ‘righaa’. And ‘naadaahu munaadatan wa nidaaan’ means he shouted at him.”
Al Raghib al Asfahani, Mufradat alfaz al Quran, p 486
النداءُ رفعُ الصوتِ وظهورُه، وقد يُقالُ ذلك للصوتِ المجرَّد
“Al nidaa is raising the voice and making it manifest, and this can be said of the bare sound itself.”
Ibn Manzur, Lisan al Arab, vol 15 p 315 (under the root ندى)
والنداءُ، ممدودٌ: الدعاءُ بأرفعِ الصوت، والنداءُ والنِّداءُ: الصوتُ مثلَ الدعاءِ والرغاءِ
“Al nidaa, with a long vowel, is supplication with the highest voice. Al nidaa with kasra or damma is the sound, like supplication and the bleating of camels.”
Az Zabidi, Taj al Arus, vol 20 p 233
والنداءُ، بالضمِّ والكسر؛ وفي الصحاح: النداءُ الصوتُ، وقد يُضمُّ مثلَ الدعاءِ والرغاءِ، وقال الراغبُ: النداءُ رفعُ الصوتِ المجرَّد
“And al nidaa, with damma or kasra on the nun. In al Sihah it is said: al nidaa is the sound, and it may be read with damma like ‘duaa’ and ‘righaa’.
Al Raghib said: al nidaa is the raising of the bare sound.
Al Fayruzabadi, al Qamus al Muhit, p 1724
From that are His sayings, Most High:
“وَنَادَاهُمَا رَبُّهُمَا أَلَمْ أَنْهَكُمَا عَنْ تِلْكُمَا الشَّجَرَةِ”
“Their Lord called out to both of them, did I not forbid you from that tree.” (al Araf 7:22)
His saying, Most High:
“وَنَادَيْنَاهُ أَنْ يَا إِبْرَاهِيمُ قَدْ صَدَّقْتَ الرُّؤْيَا”
“And We called out to him, O Ibrahim, you have indeed fulfilled the vision.” (al Saffat 37:104–105)
His saying, Most High:
“وَنَادَيْنَاهُ مِنْ جَانِبِ الطُّورِ الْأَيْمَنِ”
“And We called out to him from the right side of the mountain.” (Maryam 19:52)
His saying, Most High:
“إِذْ نَادَاهُ رَبُّهُ بِالْوَادِ الْمُقَدَّسِ طُوًى، اذْهَبْ إِلَى فِرْعَوْنَ إِنَّهُ طَغَى”
“When his Lord called out to him in the holy valley Tuwa, go to Pharaoh, indeed he has transgressed.” (al Naziat 79:16–17)
His saying, Most High:
“وَيَوْمَ يُنَادِيهِمْ فَيَقُولُ أَيْنَ شُرَكَائِيَ الَّذِينَ كُنْتُمْ تَزْعُمُونَ”
“And the Day He will call them and say, where are My partners that you used to claim.” (al Qasas 28:62)
And other verses like this.
Al Bukhari placed a chapter in his Sahih, in the Book of Tawhid:
Look also at these chapter headings which al Bukhari placed.
Clear wording with the word sound
Al Bukhari said in his Sahih in the Book of Tawhid, in the chapter “and intercession will not benefit with Him except for whom He permits”:
He narrated … from Abu Saeed al Khudri who said that the Prophet said:
Ibn Hajar said in Fath al Bari (13/13-468):
“The wording ‘then he calls out’ is recorded for most of them with the letter dal broken, and in the narration of Abu Dharr it is with the dal open in the passive form.”
The Salaf used this as proof to affirm sound, so there is no weight to the one who interprets it away.
Imam Ibn Mandah said in his Kitab at Tawhid (3/131):
“Another statement which shows that Allah, Mighty and Majestic, when He speaks with al wahy (revelation), the people of the heavens hear it
Another statement which shows that Allah, Mighty and Majestic, when He speaks with al wahy (revelation), the people of the heavens hear it. This was narrated from Abdullah ibn Masud, and Ibn Abbas, and Ibn Umar, may Allah be pleased with them, with marfu reports and mawquf reports. Allah Most High said:
حتى إذا فزع عن قلوبهم قالوا ماذا قال ربكم قالوا الحق
“Until, when fear is removed from their hearts, they say: What did your Lord say They say: The truth.” (Saba 34:23)
Muhammad ibn Yaqub ibn Yusuf (d.346 AH) informed us. Bahr ibn Nasr (d.267 AH) narrated to us. Ibn Wahb (d.197 AH) narrated to us. And Abu al Tahir Ahmad ibn Amr (d.250 AH) also informed us. And Yunus ibn Abd al Aala (d.264 AH) narrated to us. Ibn Wahb (d.197 AH) narrated to us. Yunus ibn Yazid (d.159 AH) narrated to us. From Ibn Shihab al Zuhri (d.124 AH). From Ali ibn al Husayn (d.94 AH). From Abdullah ibn Abbas, رضي الله عنه:
He said: Men from the Ansar (Helpers of Madinah) who were Companions of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, narrated to me, that while they were sitting one night with the Messenger of Allah, a star was thrown and it shone brightly.
So the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said to them: What would you say in al Jahiliyyah (the time of ignorance before Islam) when something like this was thrown They said: Allah and His Messenger know best. We used to say: Tonight a great one has been born and a great one has died.
So the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: It is not thrown because of the death of anyone and not because of his life. Rather our Lord, when He decrees a matter, the bearers of the arsh (throne) make tasbih (say Subhan Allah).
Then the people of the heaven who are below them make tasbih, until the tasbih reaches the people of the lowest heaven. Those who are below the bearers of the arsh say: What did your Lord say So they inform them.
Then the people of the heavens make tasbih until the news reaches the people of this lowest heaven. Then the jinn (hidden beings) snatch the hearing, and they take it to their allies. Whatever they bring as it is, that is the truth, but they adulterate it in it and so they add to it.
Allah, exalted is He, said:
حتى إذا فزع عن قلوبهم قالوا ماذا قال ربكم قالوا الحق
“Until, when fear is removed from their hearts, they say: What did your Lord say They say: The truth.” (Saba 34:23) This is the verse.
This was narrated by Salih ibn Kaysan (d.140 AH), and Aqil (d.144 AH), and al Awzai (d.157 AH), and Shuayb (d.162 AH), and Mamar ibn Rashid (d.153 AH).”
Al Bukhari also said mentioned in Khlaq Afaal Al Ibaad (2/49-50):
90. Abdullah ibn Anis said: I heard the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, say: Allah gathers the slaves on the Day of Resurrection, then He calls them with a voice which is heard by whoever is near: I am the King, and I am the Dayyan (the One who repays and judges with full justice). It is not befitting for any person from the people of Paradise to enter Paradise while there is anyone from the people of the Fire who is seeking from him a wrong that he did to him.
Footnote: This hadith was brought out by the author in his Sahih with taaliq (suspended form) in two places of his Sahih, once with a decisive wording and once with a tentative wording, at one seventy three of volume one and at four hundred and fifty three of volume thirteen.
He also brought it out in al Adab al Mufrad on page 370, number 79, and Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal (d.241 AH) in al Musnad, 3495, and Ibn Abi Asim (d.287 AH) in al Sunnah, one two hundred and twenty five, and al Hakim (d.405 AH) in al Mustadrak, 2400 and 37 and 438, and in 4500 and 74 and 575, and he declared it authentic, and al Dhahabi (d.748 AH) agreed with him, at nine twenty six.
In the chain of this hadith there is Abdullah ibn Muhammad ibn Aqil (d.142 AH), and in the place of his biography there will come a clarification of his status. Its summary is what Ibn Hajar (d.852 AH) said in al Talkhis, two one hundred and eight: As for when he is alone in narrating, his hadith is hasan, and as for when he opposes others, it is not accepted.
And in al Fath, thirteen three hundred and fifty four, Ibn Hajar mentioned words which give the impression of weakening this hadith.
Ibn al Qayyim (d.751 AH) answered all the points for which they weakened the hadith, as is in Mukhtasar al Sawaiq al Mursalah, and because of its importance I will quote his words, where he says, 467: This is a hasan, noble hadith, and Abdullah ibn Muhammad ibn Aqil is sidq (truthful) and his hadith is hasan.
More than one of the imams have used him as a proof, and he was spoken about because of his memory, and this type of narrator, from their hadith there is selected what opposes the trustworthy narrators, when they narrate what opposes the narrations of the precise preservers and they differ from them.
But if one of them narrates a hadith for which the supporting narrations are more than can be counted, like this hadith, then there is no doubt about accepting his hadith.
Then he mentioned those imams of great rank who brought out this hadith, then he said: So who is there besides these great ones, the leaders of Islam And there is no attention paid to what some of the Jahmiyyah claimed as a defect against it, in injustice from him and in diminishing the truth. Then he mentioned some of their points of criticism, and he said: Whoever reflects on these cold defects will know that they are of the kind of takalluf and taannut.
Then he mentioned those imams of great rank who brought out this hadith, then he said: So who is there besides these great ones, the leaders of Islam And there is no attention paid to what some of the Jahmiyyah claimed as a defect against it, in injustice from him and in diminishing the truth.
Then he mentioned some of their points of criticism and said: Whoever reflects on these cold defects will know that they are of the kind of taannut (mere obstinate disputation). And it is enough that al Bukhari (d.256 AH) narrated it in his Sahih as a supporting hadith, and he used it as a proof in Khalq Afal al Ibad.
And the imams of Islam narrated it in the books of al Sunnah, and the Salaf continued to narrate it, and it was never heard from any of the imams of al Sunnah that he rejected it, until the Jahmiyyah came and they denied it, and those who followed them in that walked upon their traces. This is in Mukhtasar al Sawaiq, 2400 and 67 to 468.
And from the later Jahmiyyah who attacked this hadith is al Kauthari (d.1371 AH), and al Albani (d.1420 AH), may Allah have mercy on him, answered him, as is in his annotation to al Sunnah by Ibn Abi Asim, 1200 and 25-200 and 26.
The doubt of the Asharis and Maturidis about denying sound and the answer
Al Hafiz Ibn Hajar said in Fath al Bari (13/469):
“The Hanbalis affirmed that Allah speaks with letter and sound. As for the letters, that is because they are clearly mentioned in the apparent wording of the Quran.
As for the sound, those who deny it says that sound is the vibrations from which is heard from the throat.
Those who affirm it answers that the sound which is described in this way is the known sound of human beings, like hearing and sight. The attributes of the Lord are not like that, so the mentioned problem does not follow when one believes in tanzih and denying tashbih. It is possible that the sound is without a throat, so resemblance does not follow.
Abdullah ibn Ahmad ibn Hanbal said in his book al Sunnah: I asked my father about a group of people who say that when Allah spoke to Musa He did not speak with a sound. My father said, rather He spoke with a sound. These hadiths are narrated as they came, then he mentioned the hadith of Ibn Masud and other than it.”
In reality this is the madhhab of Ahl al Sunnah not only the Hanabila.
The Words of the Salaf in Affirming Letters and Sound
Shaykh al Islam Ibn Taymiyyah said in Majmu Fatawa (6/528-529): “And just as this is what is known among Ahl al Sunnah wa al Hadith (the people of the Sunnah and hadith), it is also the saying of the great majority of the groups of the ummah.
For the great majority of the sects say that Allah speaks with a voice, even though they differ about whether His speech is created or subsists in His Essence, whether it is eternal or originated, or whether He has always been speaking whenever He wills. This is the saying of the Muʿtazilah, the Karramiyyah, the Shia, most of the Murjiʿah, the Salimiyyah (the Salimi group), and others from among the Hanafis, the Malikis, the Shafiʿis, the Hanbalis , and the Sufis.
There is no group among the groups of the Muslims that denied that Allah speaks with a voice except Ibn Kullab and those who followed him. Just as there is no group among the groups of the Muslims who said that speech is a single meaning that exists in the speaker except him and those who followed him.
And there is no group among the groups of the Muslims who said that the voices of the servants with the Quran are eternal without beginning, or that there is heard from the servants an eternal voice, or that the Quran which we hear we are hearing directly from Allah, except a small group among those who affiliate themselves to Ahl al Hadith from the companions of al Shafiʿi, Ahmad, Dawud and others. And there is no one among the Muslims who says that the letter which is the ink of the masahif (written copies of the Quran) is eternal without beginning.
So affirming letter and voice in the sense that the ink and the voices of the servants are eternal is a false innovation which none of the imams held. And denying that Allah speaks with a voice, and making His speech a single meaning that exists in the self, is a false innovation which none of the salaf and imams held.
What the salaf and the imams agreed upon is that the Quran is the speech of Allah, sent down, not created. It began from Him and to Him it will return.
The salaf only said “it began from Him” because the Jahmiyyah from among the Muʿtazilah and others used to say that He created the speech in some place, so the salaf said “it began from Him”, meaning that He is the One who spoke it, so it began from Him, not from some created being. As Allah the Most High said:
تَنزِيلُ الْكِتَابِ مِنَ اللَّهِ الْعَزِيزِ الْحَكِيمِ
“The revelation of the Book is from Allah, the Mighty, the Wise.” (Az Zumar 39:1)
And Allah the Most High said:
وَلَكِنْ حَقَّ الْقَوْلُ مِنِّي
“But the word from Me took effect.” (As Sajdah 32:13)
And Allah the Most High said:
وَيَرَى الَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْعِلْمَ الَّذِي أُنزِلَ إِلَيْكَ مِنْ رَّبِّكَ هُوَ الْحَقَّ
“And those who were given knowledge see that what has been sent down to you from your Lord is the truth.” (Saba 34:6)
And Allah the Most High said:
قُلْ نَزَّلَهُ رُوحُ الْقُدُسِ مِن رَّبِّكَ بِالْحَقِّ
“Say: The Holy Spirit has brought it down from your Lord in truth.” (Al Nahl 16:102)
And the meaning of their saying “and to Him it will return” is that it will be lifted from the hearts and from the masahif (written copies of the Quran), so there will not remain in the hearts from it a single verse, and there will not remain in the masahif from it a single letter, as has come in several reports.”
Shaykh al Islam also said: “Just as this is the well known view with Ahl al Sunnah wal Hadith (people of the Sunnah and hadith), it is also the saying of the majority of the groups of the Ummah, because the majority of the groups say that Allah speaks with a sound, even though they differ about whether His speech is created or exists in His Essence, and whether it is eternal or originated.
There is not found among the groups of the Muslims anyone who denied that Allah speaks with a sound except Ibn Kullab and those who followed him, just as there is not found among the groups of the Muslims anyone who said that speech is a single meaning existing in the speaker except him and those who followed him.”
From al Uluw li al Ali al Ghaffar by al Dhahabi, may Allah have mercy on him
“Ismail ibn Abd al Rahman told us, Abdullah ibn Ahmad told us, Abu al Fath ibn al Buti told us, Ibn Talhah told us, Ali ibn Muhammad told us, Muhammad ibn Amr told us, Ahmad ibn Abd al Jabbar al Attaridi told us, Abu Muawiyah told us from al Aamash, from Abu Salih, from Abu Hurayrah who said that the Messenger of Allah said, meaning that Allah the Most High says:
I am as My servant thinks of Me, and I am with him when he remembers Me. If he remembers Me within himself, I remember him within Myself. If he remembers Me in a gathering, I remember him in a gathering that is better than them. If he comes near to Me a span, I come near to him an arm length. If he comes near to Me an arm length, I come near to him a fathom. If he comes to Me walking, I come to him quickly.
This is a sound hadith. In it is a clear difference between inner speech and spoken speech. He the Most High speaks with this and with that. He is the One who spoke to Musa speaking directly, and He called him from the side of the mount and brought him close as a close companion.”
Al-Uluww li’l-Aliyy al-Ghaffar by Imam Al-Dhahabi page 56-57
From the words of the Salaf
Imam Ashbahani (d. 535AH) said: And Salih ibn Ahmad ibn Hanbal and Hanbal mentioned that Ahmad, may Allah have mercy on him, said: Jibril heard it from Allah, exalted is He, and the Prophet ﷺ heard it from Jibril, and the Companions heard it from the Prophet ﷺ.
And in the saying of Abu Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, “It is not my speech, nor the speech of my companion. It is only the speech of Allah, exalted is He,” there is an affirmation of letter and sound, because he only recited the Qur’an to them with letters and sound. (The madhhab of the Salaf is that the Qur’an is the speech of Allah. He spoke it with letter and sound. Jibril, peace be upon him, heard it from Him, then conveyed it to the Prophet ﷺ, just as he heard it, and the Prophet ﷺ conveyed it just as he heard it from Jibril. So it is the speech of Allah in its letters and its meanings. And Shaykh al Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, may Allah have mercy on him, says: The first time that denial appeared of Allah, exalted is He, speaking with a sound was in the middle of the third century, at the hands of Abdullah ibn Saeed ibn Kullab. For he affirmed the attributes in agreement with Ahl al Sunnah and denied that they were created, in refutation of the Jahmiyyah and the Mu‘tazilah.
But he did not understand any meaning for denying creation from them except that they must be eternal and subsisting in His Essence, exalted is He. So he affirmed the eternity of knowledge, hearing, sight, speech and other attributes. Then he thought that what is eternal cannot possibly be letters and sounds, because in letters and sounds there is succession and some parts coming after other parts.
So he made the eternal speech of Allah which is not created to be nothing but one meaning, or limited meanings. From that it followed that he had to say that Allah did not speak with sound and letter. A group of people followed him in that, and Imam Ahmad and all his companions, and Al Bukhari, the author of the Sahih, denied that.
End of the summary of his words. His student Ibn al Qayyim transmitted this passage from Shaykh al Islam in Mukhtasar al Sawaiq, volume two, pages 370 & 328 and also refer to Sharh al Tahawiyyah, page 196 and what comes after it. And the author here supports the madhhab of the Salaf as is his habit, and he refutes those who oppose them from the Asharis, the Kullabiyyah and the Mu‘tazilah.
And he said: It is the speech of Allah, and no one said that the Qur’an is something that subsists in the Essence. And that is a saying that goes against the saying of the group. (Except the Kullabiyyah and the Asharis.)
If it is said: It is not impossible that the speech of Jibril is an expression of the Qur’an.
It is said in reply: The presence of inimitability in its wording and structure does not come through the speech of Jibril.
If it is said: If speech is letter and sound, and there is no one to be addressed by it, that leads to nonsense, and this is impossible.
It is said in reply: Whoever says that it subsists in the Essence is told: Whoever repeats words to himself without wanting to fix them in his own self is a whispering person who is afflicted with waswas, and Allah is exalted far above that in the highest way.
So when this is settled in the self and does not lead to nonsense, then it is the same that it should be letter and sound and not lead to nonsense.
If it is said: Letters only come about through tools, because each letter has an exit place, and it is not allowed to ascribe that to Allah.
He is told: Allah, exalted is He, said: “On the Day We will say to Hell, ‘Are you full?’ and it will say, ‘Are there any more?’” (Surah Qaf verse 30) and the Fire has no tools for letters.
And He said: “They both said, ‘We come willingly.’” (Surah Fussilat verse 11) And He said to Paradise: “Speak,” so it said: “The believers have indeed succeeded.” (Ibn Kathir mentioned this hadith in his Tafsir at the beginning of Surah al Muminoon and attributed it to the Musnad of Al Bazzar and to Al Tabarani from the hadith of Abu Saeed al Khudri, Ibn Abbas and Anas, may Allah be pleased with them all.)
Al Hujjah fi Bayan al Mahajjah of Abu al Qasim al Asbahani (1/332-333)
Declaring as disbeliever the one who says that the letters of the Quran are created, and this is not about the inner speech
Ibn Taymiyyah said: Shaykh Abu al Hasan said: “Shaykh Abu Hamid al Isfarayini was very strong in his rejection of al Baqillani and the people of kalam.”
He said: “The Shafii imams always used to hold themselves above and refuse to be ascribed to al Ashari, and they used to free themselves from the foundations upon which al Ashari built his madhhab, and they used to forbid their students and their loved ones from going near it.
This is as I heard a number of shaykhs and imams, among them the hafiz al Mutaman ibn Ahmad ibn Ali al Saji, say: We heard a group of trustworthy shaykhs say: When Shaykh Abu Hamid Ahmad ibn Abi Tahir al Isfarayini, the imam of the imams who filled the earth with knowledge and students, would walk to Jumuah from Qatiyyat al Karaj to the Jami mosque of al Mansur, he would enter the ribat (fortified post) known as al Zawzi, which is beside the mosque, and he would turn to those present and say:
Bear witness that the Qur an is the speech of Allah and is not created, just as Imam Ibn Hanbal said, and not as al Baqillani says. This was repeated from him on many Fridays.”
He was asked about that, so he said: “I do this until the matter spreads among the people and among the righteous, and the news becomes well known among the people of the lands that I am free from what they are upon, meaning the Ashariyyah, and that I am free from the madhhab of Abu Bakr al Baqillani and his creed.
For a group of jurists from distant regions enter upon al Baqillani in secret and read with him, and they are tested and tempted by his madhhab. Then when they go back to their lands they openly show their innovation without fail, and someone may think that they learned it from me before they learned it from him, while I did not say it, and I am free from the madhhab of al Baqillani and his creed.”
Dar’ Ta’arud al-‘Aql wa al-Naql (2/96-97)
Even stronger than that is that Abu Bakr al Baqillani used to go out to the bath house with his face covered from fear of Shaykh Abu Hamid al Isfarayini.
Abu al Hasan said: And I heard the jurist imam Abu Mansur Saad ibn Ali al Ajali say: I heard a number of shaykhs and imams in Baghdad, and I think Shaykh Abu Ishaq al Shirazi was one of them, say: Abu Bakr al Baqillani used to go out to the public bath with his face covered, out of fear of Shaykh Abu Hamid al Isfarayini.
Abu al Hasan said: And it is known how strong Shaykh Abu Hamid was against ahl al kalam, to the point that he separated the usul al fiqh of al Shafii from the usul of al Ashari, and Abu Bakr al Zadqani wrote that down from him.
That book is with me, and Shaykh Abu Ishaq al Shirazi followed it in his two books Al Luma and Al Tabsirah, to such an extent that even if the saying of al Ashari agreed with one of the views of our companions, he would mark it out and say: This is the saying of some of our companions, and it is also what the Asharis say, and he would not count them among the companions of al Shafii. They held themselves above them and above their madhhab in usul al fiqh, let alone in usul al din.
Ibn Taymiyyah says: What has been transmitted from Shaykh Abu Hamid and others like him from the imams of the companions of al Shafii, the ashab al wujuh (leading scholars of the madhhab who were mujtahideen), is well known in their books written on usul al fiqh and in other works.
Dar’ Ta’arud al-‘Aql wa al-Naql (2/98)
A useful point from the words of Shaykh al Islam
“The speech of Allah, is it letter and sound or not. Giving an absolute answer in this matter, either with full denial or full affirmation, is a mistake. This question is one of the invented matters that appeared after the third century. It began when a group from the mutakallimeen as sifatiyyah (theologians who spoke about the attributes of Allah) said that the speech of Allah which He sent down to His prophets, like the Torah, the Gospel, and the Quran, and also His speech that He did not send down, and the words by which He brought created things into being, and the words that contain His commands and His prohibitions and His reports, are nothing except one single meaning. According to them this is one single attribute that exists with Allah.
If this one meaning is expressed in Hebrew then it becomes the Torah, and if it is expressed in Arabic then it becomes the Quran. They also said that command, prohibition, and report are attributes of that single meaning, not separate kinds. They said that the letters of the Quran are created, that Allah created them and did not speak them, and they are not from His speech, because they said that His speech cannot be with letter and sound.
Another group from the affirmers opposed them, and they said that the Quran is the letters and the sounds. Some people imagined that these affirmers meant the ink when they said letters, and that they meant the voices of the servants when they said sounds. No scholar ever said this.
The correct view, which the early generations of this ummah followed, like Imam Ahmad and Al Bukhari the author of the Sahih, in his book Khalq Afaal Al Ibaad, and others, and all the imams before them and after them, is following the clear texts and the ijma.
This correct view is that the entire Quran is the speech of Allah. Its letters and its meanings are all His speech. None of it is the speech of anyone else. Allah sent it down to His Messenger. The Quran is not a name for only the meaning, and it is not a name for only the letters.
It is a name for both together. In the same way, all speech is not only letters and not only meanings. Just as a person who speaks is not only a spirit and not only a body. Rather the person is both together.
And Allah speaks with sound, just as the authentic hadiths tell us. His sound is not like the sounds of the servants. It is not the sound of the reciter nor anyone else. Allah is not like anything from His creation, not in His essence, not in His attributes, and not in His actions. Just as His knowledge, His power, and His life are not like the knowledge, power, and life of the creation, His speech is not like the speech of the creation.
His meanings are not like their meanings. His letters are not like their letters. His sound is not like their sound. Whoever makes Allah like His creation has deviated in His names and His verses. Whoever denies what Allah described Himself with has also deviated in His names and His verses.”
Majmu Fatawa (12/243-244)
