describing the Qur’an as the word of God and the meaning of the word of God being eternal

 first:

The Holy Qur’an is the speech of God Almighty: its words, letters, and meanings. From Him it began and to Him it will return. God Almighty spoke it, Gabriel, peace be upon him, heard it from Him, and He revealed it to Muhammad, may God bless him and grant him peace . Allah the Almighty said: {Indeed, it is a noble Qur’an in a protected Book which none touch except the purified. A revelation from the Lord of the worlds} [Al-Waqi’ah: 77-80]. He also said: {Alif, Lam, Meem. The revelation of the Book - there is no doubt about it - is from the Lord of the worlds} [Sajdah: 1-2]. He also said: {The revelation of the Book is from Allah, the Exalted in Might, the Wise} [Az-Zumar: 1]. It is part of His speech, which is one of His attributes. So whoever says: It is created, is a disbeliever. This is what the people of Sunnah and Jama’ah believe, contrary to what the people of deviation and perversion believe. Al-Tahawi, may God have mercy on him, said in his famous creed: “ The Qur’an is the speech of God , from Him it began without any manner of speech, and He revealed it to His Messenger as revelation, and the believers truly believed in that, and they were certain that it is the speech of God Almighty in truth, not created like the speech of the creation. So whoever hears it and claims that it is the speech of humans has committed blasphemy, and God has condemned him and criticized him and threatened him with Hellfire, as He, the Most High, said: (I will drive him into Hellfire) So when God threatened Hellfire for whoever says: (This is nothing but the word of a human being), we knew and were certain that it is the speech of the Creator of humankind, and it does not resemble the speech of humankind.” End quote. Ibn Qudamah, may Allah have mercy on him , said : “Among the words of Allah , the Most High, is the Great Qur’an , which is the clear Book of Allah , His strong rope, His straight path, and the revelation of the Lord of the Worlds, which the Trustworthy Spirit brought down upon the heart of the Master of Messengers, in a clear Arabic tongue, revealed and not created, from Him it began and to Him it will return. It is a series of clear Surahs, clear Verses, letters and words. Whoever recites it and expresses it will receive ten good deeds for every letter. It has a beginning and an end, parts and portions. It is recited by tongues, preserved in hearts, heard by ears, written in the Qur’ans. It contains clear and ambiguous verses, abrogating and abrogated verses, specific and general verses, commands and prohibitions. {Falsehood cannot come to it from before it or from behind it. It is sent down by One Full of Wisdom, Praiseworthy.} [Fussilat: 42], and the Most High’s saying: {Say: If “Mankind and the jinn have gathered together to produce the like of this Qur’an. They cannot produce the like of it, even if they were to each other assistants.” (Al-Isra’: 88) This is the Arabic Book about which the disbelievers said: {We will never believe in this Qur’an} (Saba’: 31), and some of them said: {This is nothing but the word of a human being} (Al-Muddaththir: 25), so Allah the Almighty said: {I will cast him into Hellfire} (Al-Muddaththir: 26) ... There is no disagreement among Muslims that whoever denies a surah, verse, word, or letter of the Qur’an that is agreed upon is a disbeliever, and in this A conclusive argument that it is letters “ended” “ The Glimpse of Belief” p. (28-22) . The meaning of the Sunnis’ saying: “From Him it began” is that God




God Almighty spoke it, so its appearance and beginning are from God Almighty. The meaning of their saying: “And to Him it will return” is that it will be removed from the hearts and copies of the Qur’an at the end of time, so that not a single verse of it will remain in the hearts or copies of the Qur’an, as came in several narrations. Al-Hafiz Diya’ al-Din al-Maqdisi (d. 643 AH), may God have mercy on him, wrote a treatise on this issue, entitled: “ The Qur’an’s Exclusivity in Returning to the Most Gracious.” The people of innovation have many other articles that contradict what is indicated by clear reason and authentic transmission in this regard. They can be reviewed and the scholars’ responses to them can be found in the books of the people of Sunnah that are compiled in this regard. Among them are books specifically devoted to responding to the people of innovation regarding the attribute of speech, such as: Al-Burhan fi Mas’alat al-Qur’an and Hikayat al -Munazarah fi al-Qur’an , both by Muwaffaq al-Din Ibn Qudamah, the author of al-Mughni, may Allah have mercy on him. Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, may Allah have mercy on him, wrote many books and letters regarding the issues of the attribute of speech. The twelfth volume of his collected fatwas can be reviewed. Among his important books on this is the book al-Tis’iniyah, which responds to the Ash’aris’ innovations regarding the attribute of speech from approximately ninety aspects . As for contemporary books, Shaykh Abdullah al-Juda’i’ devoted a book to this issue in his book: Al-Aqeedah al-Salafiyyah fi Speech of the Lord of the Worlds, which is a useful and beneficial book in its field. Sheikh Al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) said : “The Salaf said: The Qur’an is the speech of Allah , revealed and not created. They also said that He has always been speaking whenever He wills. They explained that the speech of Allah is eternal , meaning that its type is eternal and has always been eternal. None of them said that the specific speech itself is eternal , nor did any of them say that the Qur’an is eternal . Rather, they said: It is the speech of Allah, revealed and not created. If Allah spoke the Qur’an by His will, then the Qur’an is His speech, and it was revealed from Him and not created. However, it is not eternal and eternal with the eternity of Allah . If Allah has always been speaking whenever He wills, then the type of His speech is eternal . Whoever understands the statement of the Salaf and differentiates between these statements will be free from doubts regarding these difficult issues that have troubled the people of the earth.” End quote from Majmoo’ Al-Fatawa (12/54) . He also said - may God have mercy on him - “And the speech of God : God spoke it Himself, He spoke it by His choice and power, it is not a creation separate from Him. Rather, it exists by itself, even though He spoke it by His power and will, it does not exist without His power and will. And the predecessors said: It has always existed.”












Allah the Most High speaks when He wills. So if it is said: The speech of Allah is eternal , meaning that He did not become a speaker after He was not a speaker, nor is His speech created, nor is there a single, eternal meaning that exists in and of itself; rather, He has always been speaking when He wills, then this is a correct statement .
None of the early generations said: The specific speech itself is eternal. They used to say: The Qur’an is the speech of Allah , revealed and not created, from Him it began and to Him it will return. None of them said: The Qur’an is eternal , nor did they say: His speech has a single meaning that exists in and of itself, nor did they say: The letters of the Qur’an or its letters and sounds are eternal and eternal and exist in the essence of Allah , even though the type of letters Allah has always spoken with them when He wills. Rather, they said: The letters of the Qur’an are not created, and they denounced those who said: Allah created the letters . End quote from al-Fataawa (12/566-567) . Shaykh al-Islam (may Allah have mercy on him) said : “ The followers of the early generations say: The speech of Allah is eternal , meaning: He has always been speaking when He wills. They do not say: The specific word itself is eternal, like His saying to Moses and the like . ”





Second:
Describing the Qur’an as eternal, or describing the speech of Allah as being ancient , has two meanings: The first meaning is that it is not created, as mentioned above; and that the type of speech, with regard to Allah , the Most High , is eternal , and He has always been speaking, whenever He wills, and however He wills, and He speaks to whomever He wills of His servants. This is true, and this is the source of those who used the term “eternity” with regard to the Qur’an , or with regard to the speech of Allah in general, from among the people of the Sunnah. Among these is Abu al-Qasim al-Lalaka’i in his book Sharh Usul I’tiqad Ahl al-Sunnah wa’l-Jama’ah, who said (2/224): “The context of what was narrated from the Prophet ( blessings and peace of Allah be upon him), which indicates that the Qur’an is one of the eternal attributes of Allah .” Then he said (2/227): “What was narrated of the consensus of the Companions that the Qur’an is not created.” Among those who also used this term is Ibn Qudamah (may Allah have mercy on him ) in Lum’at al-I’tiqad. He said (15): “And among the attributes of God Almighty is that He speaks with an ancient speech that is heard by whomever He wishes from among His creation. Moses, peace be upon him, heard it from Him without an intermediary, and Gabriel, peace be upon him, heard it, and whoever He gave permission from among His angels and messengers, and that He, glory be to Him, speaks to the believers in the Hereafter and they speak to Him, and He gives them permission to visit Him. God said:





Allah the Almighty said: {And Allah spoke to Moses directly} [An-Nisa’: 164], and He the Almighty said: {O Moses, indeed I have chosen you over mankind with My messages and with My speech} [Al-A’raf: 144], and He the Almighty said: {Among them are those to whom Allah spoke} [Al-Baqarah: 253], and He the Almighty said: {And it is not for a human being that Allah should speak to him except by revelation or from behind a veil} [Ash-Shura: 51], and He the Almighty said: {So when he came to it, he was called, “O Moses”} {Indeed, I am your Lord, so take off your sandals} [Ash-Shura: 51] {Indeed, you are in the sacred valley of Tuwa} [Taha: 11-12], and the Almighty said: {Indeed, I am Allah. There is no god except Me, so worship Me} [Taha: 14], and it is not permissible for anyone other than Allah to say this ... End quote. The second meaning: that the Qur’an is a meaning , or a meaning and letters, which Allah spoke in eternity, then He did not speak after that, and this is from the innovations of the Ash’aris and those who agreed with them from the people of theology, by which they intended to depart from the innovation of the Mu’tazilah and the Jahmiyyah who say that the Qur’an is created . So whoever says about the Qur’an , or other attributes of Allah the Most High and His voluntary actions: that it is eternal , and he means that, then his intention is false, and then the wording that he used is ambiguous and not authentic. Because of this false possibility that this term implies, and because it is not transmitted, the most correct opinion here is not to apply the term “eternal” to the Qur’an , but rather to say about it what the Salaf said: The Qur’an is the speech of Allah , not created.



But these [meaning: the Ash’arites and those who agreed with them] believed that the Qur’an and all the speech of Allah are eternal in essence, and that Allah does not speak by His will and power. Then they differed: Some of them said: The eternal is one meaning , which is all the meanings of the Torah, the Gospel, and the Qur’an; and that if the Torah is expressed in Arabic, it becomes the Qur’an, and if the Qur’an is expressed in Hebrew, it becomes the Torah. They said: And the Arabic Qur’an was not spoken by Allah , but rather either He created it in some bodies, or Gabriel or Muhammad brought it about; in which case it would be the speech of that Messenger, with which He translated the one meaning that exists in the essence of the Lord, which is all the meanings of speech. Some of them said: Rather, the eternal Qur’an is letters, or letters and sounds, and they are eternal, eternal, existing in the essence of the Lord from eternity and forever…; If He speaks to Moses, the angels, or the servants on the Day of Resurrection, He will not speak to him with words that He speaks by His will and power when He speaks to him, but He will create for him a perception that will perceive that ancient speech that is necessary for the essence of God from eternity and forever. And according to them, He has always said and will always say: “O Adam, dwell, you and your wife,” and “O Noah, disembark with peace from Us and blessings upon you,” and “O Iblis, what prevented you from prostrating to that which I created with My hands,” and the like. The discussion of these sayings and others has been expanded upon in other places.



The point is that no one can transmit either of these two statements from any of the predecessors; I mean the Companions and those who followed them in righteousness and all the imams of the Muslims who are famous for their knowledge and religion, who have a truthful tongue in the nation, in the time of Ahmad ibn Hanbal, nor the time of al-Shafi’i, nor the time of Abu Hanifa, nor before them. The first to invent this principle was Abu Muhammad Abdullah ibn Sa`id ibn Kullab... Fatawa (17/85) Accordingly, whoever says: The Qur’an is eternal , or the Word of God is eternal , and he meant the first meaning : that the Qur’an , and all the Word of God Almighty, was revealed from Him and is not created, and yet it is related to His will and choice, then his intention is correct, even though it is better and safer to limit himself to the words transmitted from the Salaf, free from ambiguity and the possibility of false meanings . If he meant the second meaning and denied that the Word of God Almighty is related to His will and choice, then his intention is false, and the wording that he used is also an innovation. See also: Minhaaj as-Sunnah an-Nabawiyyah, by Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, may God have mercy on him (5/419-421).

Quoted Islam Question and Answer ____

 Ibn Uthaymeen said in his explanation of “Lum’at Al-I’tiqaad ” : The speech of Allah is of an ancient type and has new instances. The meaning of “ ancient ” is that Allah has always been and will always be speaking. Speech is not new from Him after He did not exist. The meaning of “new instances” is that the instances of His speech, that is, the specific, particular speech , are new because they are related to His will. Whenever He wills, He speaks whatever He wills, however He wills. Al -Dhahabi

saidin “Siyar A’lam Al-Nubala”: Imam Ahmad used to block speech on this subject and not permit it. Likewise, he used to declare as an innovator whoever said: My utterance of the Qur’an is not created, and he used to declare as a misguided person whoever said: My utterance of the Qur’an is ancient. He used to declare as a disbeliever whoever said:The Qur’anis created. Rather, heThe Qur’an isthe speechof Allah revealed and not created. He forbade delving into the issue of utterance. There is no doubt that our utterance of the Qur’an is from our own earnings, and the spoken and recited Qur’an isthe speech ofAllah is not created. Recitation, utterance, writing, and vocalization are from our actions.
Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani
saidin his book called Fath al-Bari Sharh Sahihal-Bukhari:What is preserved from the majority of the Salaf is to refrain from delving into this and going into depth about it, and to limit oneself to saying that the Qur’anis the speechof God and that it is not created, then to remain silent about what is beyond that.