The Speech of Allah Is Uncreated

Among the many ideas that they had (some of them are explained here, simply to give an understanding of deviant ideologies), the most important one, which they really, really emphasised, and which would be used as a criterion to determine whether somebody was of correct belief according to them, or deviant according to them, was the issue of the speech of Allah (swt). It is only alluded to here; it is dealt with in more detail in later chapters. But their emphasis, or their insistence, was that the speech of Allah (swt) is created. Whereas for Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jamāʿah, the belief is that Allah's speech is uncreated, because it is an attribute of His, and His attributes are eternal. Just as Allah does not have a beginning, His attributes do not have a beginning. They are beginningless, just as He is beginningless. They are also eternal, just as He is eternal.

They said: no, the speech is created. Created means that it is not eternal; it has a beginning. We are all created beings. We are all created beings. We are not eternal beings. There was a time when we were in non-existence. Allah decided that we should come into existence, and thus we are existent today. So we are contingent beings. We are not eternal; we are created beings, and there comes an end to us as well. Likewise, they said, the speech of Allah is like that as well. They said the speech of Allah (swt) is like that as well.

They would go and ask everybody. Some of the scholars would adopt that idea externally, just so that they could be safe from the persecutions. There were many other ʿulamāʾ who held out. Some were imprisoned. Many were imprisoned. Some were killed. Imam Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, who is the most famous, most popular personality who comes up at this time, was one of the final frontiers of Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jamāʿah, one of the greatest of their scholars; may Allah have mercy on him. He stood out against this, even in the face of flogging: throughout al-Maʾmūn's period, throughout al-Maʾmūn al-Rashīd's period, and throughout his brother al-Muʿtaṣim billāh's period, when he was flogged. And after him came another of their brothers^***, who was also a Muʿtazilī.

Finally, after the third one, there was al-Mutawakkil billāh^****, who was on the belief of Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jamāʿah, and who acted very favourably towards Imam Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal. So favourably, in fact, that Imam Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal would say that this was a greater fitnah for him: trying to deal with all the gifts he was being given, and all the hospitality of the others, when the persecution he had simply been able to deal with. That was Imam Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, who was flogged until he fell unconscious; and some say they also trampled on him.

For Imam Aḥmad, this was all in trying to reaffirm the correct faith. It was to reaffirm the correct faith of the Muslims: that the speech of Allah (swt) is eternal. Anyone this has made curious will find it discussed in detail in its own section, in shāʾ Allāh. But these were some of the questions they brought up which were peripheral issues. They were not issues that had to be discussed at that length.

And that is why this subject has been called ʿilm al-kalām. In Arabic it is called ʿilm al-kalām. Kalām just means a discourse, speech. So some say that this whole subject has been called ʿilm al-kalām because of one of the most debated and discussed issues in it, which was the issue of the speech of Allah. That is one opinion. There are other opinions as to why it is called ʿilm al-kalām. But here it is called theology, speculative theology, polemics. There is a good side to it and a bad side to it, which a later chapter discusses.