The Speech of Allah: His Address, Creative Command, and the Qur’ān: Kitab al-Tawhid (The Book on Monotheism) by Abu Bakr b. Khuzaymah

Allah’s Speech with the Believers and the Disbelievers

[This discussion revolves around] the difference between the speech of Allāh Almighty to believers, whose sins He will not reveal and His speech to the unbelievers, who did not believe in Allāh, the Greatest, in their worldly life, refusing to believe in the existence of their Lord, straying from the right path and rejecting the Day of Judgment.

1. Abū al-Ashᶜath, Aḥmad b. al-Miqdām al-ᶜIjlī → al-Muᶜtamir → his father → Qatādah → Ṣafwān b. Muḥraz → Ibn ᶜUmar → the Prophet:

2. Abū Mūsā → Muhammad b. Muthannā → Muhammad b. Abī ᶜAdī → Saᶜīd → Qatādah → Ṣ̣afwān b. Muḥraz:

While we were circumambulating the Kaᶜbah in the company of Ibn ᶜUmar…

3. Bundār → Ibn Abī ᶜAdī → Ṣaᶜīd and Hishām → Qatādah → Ṣafwān b. Muḥraz:

We were circumambulating the Kaᶜbah in the company of Ibn ᶜUmar.

I do not have this ḥadīth from Bundār from Saᶜīd.

4. Al-Ḥasan b. Muhammad al-Zaᶜfarānī → Yazīd b. Hārūn → Himām → Qatādah → Ṣafwān b. Muḥraz:

I was holding the hand of Ibn ᶜUmar when a person came to him and said, “What do you know about what the Prophet said regarding al-Najwa (whispering)?” Ibn ᶜUmar replied that he heard the Prophet say: “Allāh will get so near to the believers on the Day of Judgment that He will shadow them. Then He will say: “O my servant, do you remember such and such a sin?” The man will say: “Yes, my Lord.” He will confess his sins and deem himself to be ruined. Allah will then say: “I covered your sins in the world and forgave you today.” Then He will give him the record of his good deeds. As far as the unbelievers and the hypocrites are concerned, the witnesses will say, “These are the ones who lied against their Lord! Behold, the Curse of Allah is on those who do wrong!” (Q 11:18)”

The above is the wording of al-Zaᶜfarānī. Abū Mūsā said in his ḥadīth: “Regarding the unbelievers, the witnesses will call out: ‘Where are the people who told lies about their Lord? Behold! Allāh’s curse be upon the wrong doers.’”

5. Al-Zaᶜfarānī → ᶜAffān → Qatādah:

6. Al-Zaᶜfarānī reported the same ḥadīth from Khalf, who reported from Abū ᶜAwānah who narrated it from Qatādah in different words.

Arguments from the Book of Allah and the Prophetic Sunnah

On: (a) the difference between the speech of Allāh through which He creates the creations and His speech directed to His creatures.

(b) the refutation of the claim of Jahmīs who hold that Allāh’s speech is His creation. Our Lord, however, is pure and above what they claimed.

Proofs from the Book

Allāh Almighty says: “Is it not His to create and to govern? Blessed be Allah, the Cherisher and Sustainer of the worlds!” (Q 07:54). In this verse, Allah differentiated between the act of creation and His command through which He creates the creatures. This difference is obtained by the use of the conjunction ‘and’ (waw istīnāf).

Thus Allāh has made it clear in His book that He creates the creatures with His word. On another occasion, He says: “For to anything which We have willed, We but say the word, ‘Be’, and it is” (Q 16:40).

Difference between Creation (khalq) and Command (al-amr)

Allāh told us that everything in the creation is created through the word: “Be”. It is there. His word, “kun” (be), is the word with which He creates.

The word of Allah with which He creates His creation is not His creation. Creation is accomplished by the word of Allah. Therefore, try to understand. Do not err and do not lead the others into error.

Those who understand Allāh’s revelation know that He has clarified to the believers that whatever happens is accomplished with the word ‘kun’. The word ‘kun’ is a spoken word. It is not one of the created things which are created through it. They also understand that if His word ‘kun’ were a creation, as held by the Jahmīs who ascribe lies to Allāh, that would mean that Allah creates His creatures with the help of His creations. We ask them this: O ignorant folk, if the word with which the creations are made were a creation, it would have been created on terms of your creation. Is not the crux of your view that Allah creates the word “kun” before He creates another thing with it and that it is a created thing created by an already existing creature which is created by another created thing ad infinitum? This takes us to the conclusion that everything is created by another created thing. This negates that Allah started creation. It rejects that He created things without using anything. It negates creation ex-nihilo.

This view cannot be held by any reasoning mind even if he ponders over it and is blessed with the right and sound judgment. Allah has said: “He created the sun, the moon, and the stars, (all) governed by laws under His command” (Q 07:54).

Can any Muslim believe, O you endowed with wisdom, that Allāh governs the sun, the moon, and the stars by the help of His creation? Is not the meaning of this verse, according to the ones who understand Allāh’s revelation, that the command with which He governs something is not in itself another governed thing? Is it not a fact that a command is different from what is being commanded?

So understand Allāh’s speech from Him and learn from His Prophet its explanation, O wise people! Do not go astray from the right path so that you may not fall into error like the Jahmīs on whom Allāh sends His curse.

Proofs from the Sunnah

Now listen to a clear and open proof from the Sunnah of the Prophet which is directly traced back to him through reliable and just narrators without a break, on the issue of difference between the creations of Allāh and His speech.

1. ᶜAbd al-Jabbār b. al-ᶜUlāᵓ → Ṣufyān → Muhammad b. ᶜAbd al-Raḥmān (the freed slave of Ṭalḥah) → Kurayb → Ibn ᶜAbbās:

The Prophet was going for the Fajr prayer while Juwayriyah was sitting in the mosque. The Prophet came back when the day was set. He asked Juwayriyah, “Have you been sitting since then?” She answered in the affirmative. The Prophet told her: “I uttered, after you, such weighty words that, if you desired to weigh yourself against them, they would have outweighed you. They are: “Glory to Allah by the number of all His creatures, length of all His words, extent of the pleasure of His Nafs, weighing equal to His throne.”

2. Muhammad b. Bashshār → Muhammad i.e. Ibn Jaᶜfar:

3. Abū Mūsā → Muhammad b. Jaᶜfar → Shuᶜbah → Muhammad b. ᶜAbd al-Raḥmān → Kurayb → Ibn ᶜAbbās → Juwayriyyah:

“The Prophet passed her.”

Then the narrator related the ḥadīth in a fuller form than that of Ibn ᶜUyaynah. Both these narrators included the following words in their reports:

Glory to Allah by the number of all His creatures, length of all His words, extent of the pleasure of His Nafs, weighing equal to His throne.

Both repeated each of these attributes thrice. I have included this narrative in Kitāb al-Duᶜāᵓ (Book of Supplications).

Abū Bakr said: The Prophet clarified the revelation revealed to him by Allah. He explicated it for his Ummah. He has clarified that the word of Allāh is not His creation. So he said: “Glory to Allah by the number of all His creatures, number of all His words, the number of time He is pleased with His Nafs, equal to the weight of His throne.”

In this statement the Prophet differentiated the creation of Allāh from His speech. If the words of Allāh had been His creatures, he would not have put both separately. Notice how he qualified the throne which is a creation with an adjective that does not collocate with number. In zinah al-ᶜArshihī (Weight of His throne), zinah does not accept a number. It is not countable. Also, Allāh has told us in His book that His words cannot be compared with anything. None of His creatures can count them. Allah has let those endowed with understanding among the believers know that if a created being tries to enumerate the words of Allah, he is bound to fail. In this regard Allāh says in the holy Qurᵓān:

If the ocean were ink (wherewith to write out) the words of my Lord, sooner would the ocean be exhausted than would the words of my Lord, even if we added another ocean like it, for its aid (Q 18:109).

This verse is counted among the mujmal (unclear/ambiguous) verses. It needs an explicator. It says: Say O Muhammad: “If the oceans are used as ink and an effort is made to write the words of my Lord in it, they will be exhausted before the words of Allah are penned down even if we take double of this amount of ink.” Another verse further explicates this verse. It follows: “And if all the trees on earth were pens and the ocean (were ink), with seven oceans behind it to add to its (supply), yet would not the words of Allah be exhausted (in the writing): for Allah is Exalted in Power, full of Wisdom” (Q 31:27).

So when Allāh mentioned the pens in this verse, those endowed with wisdom concluded through the mention of pen that He means to say: “If all the trees on the earth were pens used to write the words of Allāh and if the oceans were used as ink the water of oceans would exhaust before the words of Allah are covered.”

The Divine statement: “And if all the trees on earth were pens…” too is ambiguous (mujmal). It has been explained in another verse. This verse does not clearly contain what is intended there. The referred-to verse implies that, if the words of Allāh are intended to be written with such a large number of pens, the water of the ocean would be used for ink. Here, quite differently, He did not intend anything other than that if the water of ocean is used for ink as has been explained in the second verse mentioned above.

In the Qurᵓānic verse, “If the ocean were ink [….]”, the Almighty has applied the word baḥr (ocean) to connote biḥār (oceans). We know that sometimes the noun al-baḥr is conventionally used for all the oceans as in His saying: “He it is Who enables you to traverse through land and sea; so that you even board ships….” (Q 10:22).

Similar is the case in the verse: “and the ships that sail through the sea by His Command” (Q 22:65). In these two instances, the word ‘baḥr’ has been used to connote bihār (oceans) conclusively. Allāh makes whoever He wills to travel through the seas.

Similarly, the ships float with Allāh’s command in the seas and not in a particular sea. His saying: “And if all the trees on earth were pens” is held to be connoting the genre/class. Sakt (silence) and nuṭq (speech) in the following sentences are examples of this usage. We say: “Silence (sakt) is not opposite to power of speech (nuṭq).” Allah does not say that if seven other seas are added to the ink made of the first seven ones then the words of Allah will be fully covered, and the ink will remain.

The supportive evidence of my interpretation of the verse is the other verse which makes it absolutely clear that even another such supply of water will not exhaust the words of Allah. The implication is that if the ink equal to a sea is brought and the words of Allah are intended to be written, the words will not be covered. We know that the word baḥr is applied for a number of seas even if in this place it apparently stands for only one sea. However, the meaning of the word in this place would be as follows. If there is a sea of ink for writing down the words of Allāh and another sea is supplied as ink, the words of Allāh will not be covered. Therefore, this verse does not show that if there is one more sea available, the words of Allāh will be completed and the ink then will remain. For Allāh has told us in the other verse that if there are seven seas and Allāh’s words are to be written, they cannot be completed. Now I present sound reports that have been directly traced back to the Prophet by reliable and trustworthy narrators in each layer of the chain without a break. These narratives show that the word of the Lord is not His creation as supposed by the Jahmīs on whom Allāh may send His curses.

4. Baḥr b. Naṣr b. Sābiq al-Khawlānī → Ibn Wahb → ᶜAmr b. al-Ḥārith → Yazīd b. Ḥabīb and his father, al-Ḥarq b. Yaᶜqūb:

5. Yaᶜqūb b. ᶜAbd Allāh b. al-Ashajj → Bishr b. Saᶜīd → Saᶜd Ibn Abī Waqāṣ → Khawlah b. Ḥakīm → the Prophet:

When any of you stops at a place, he should say, “I seek refuge of Allāh’s perfect words from the evil of His creatures.” Nothing will harm him till he leaves the place.

Yaᶜqūb b. ᶜAbd Allāh narrated from al-Qaᶜqāᶜ b. Ḥakīm who narrated from Dhakwān Abū Ṣāliḥ who narrated from Abū Hurayrah who said:

A man came to the Prophet and said, “O Messenger of Allāh, last night a scorpion stung me.” The Prophet said, “If you had said, “I seek the refuge of Allāh’s words from the evil of what He has created,” it would not have harmed you.”

Abū Bakr said: “I have included the narratives on this issue in Kitāb al-Ṭib wa al-Ruqā (Medication and Sorcery).”

Abū Bakr said: Is it not conclusively known, O men of understanding, that it is not lawful for the Prophet to command someone to seek the refuge of a created thing, one of Allāh’s creations, from another creature? Have you ever heard a scholar allowing someone to seek refuge of Kaᶜbah or al-Ṣafā and al-Marwah or ᶜArafāt and Minā from the evil of what Allāh has created? Nobody says so. Nor is it allowed to a Muslim who knows Allāh’s religion to utter such blasphemy. It is not possible for a Muslim to seek refuge of a created thing from the evil of another created thing.

6. Abū Hāshim Ziyād b. Ayyūb → Ibrāhīm (Ibn Mundhir al-Khazāmī) → Ibrāhīm b. al-Muhājir b. Mismār → ᶜUmar b. Ḥafṣ Ibn Dhakwān → the freed slave of al-Ḥuraqah (ᶜAbd al-Raḥmān b. Yaᶜqūb b. al-ᶜUlāᵓ b. ᶜAbd al-Raḥmān) → Abū Hurayrah → the Prophet:

Allāh worded Sūrah Ṭāhā and Yāsīn two thousand years before creating Adam. When the angels heard the Qurᵓān they said, “Blessed is the Ummah to which this discourse will be revealed; blessed are the tongues that will recite it and blessed are the hearts that are destined to carry it.”

Abū Bakr said: The argument that the Qurᵓān is not a creation of Allah is a lengthy discussion. The issue will, by the permission of Allah, be discussed later in this book at a proper place.

Qurᵓān is the Speech of Allāh

His speech is not a created thing. [This offers a] rebuttal to the view of the unbelieving Jahmīs al-Muᶜaṭṭilah.

1. Muhammad b. Yaḥyā → Ṣarīḥ b. al-Nuᶜmān friend of al-Luᵓluᵓ → Ibn Abī al-Zanād → Abū al-Zanād → ᶜUrwah b. al-Zubayr → Nayyār b. Mukrim al-Sullamī, the companion of the Prophet:

When the verses, “A. L. M. The Roman Empire has been defeated—in a land close by; but they, (even) after (this) defeat of theirs, will soon be victorious,” (Q 30:1-3) were revealed, the Prophet came out and started reciting: “In the Name of Allāh the Merciful, the Compassionate. (A. L. M. The Roman Empire has been defeated—in a land close by; but they, (even) after (this) defeat of theirs, will soon be victorious—within a few years.” The leaders of the polytheists of Mecca said, “O son of the father of Qaḥāfah! Is that what your companion has coined?” He said: “By Allah, No. This is the speech of Allāh and His word.” They said: “This is between you and me. Let us bet on the Persians’ triumph over the Greeks within a few years.” They meant to say that they would both bet. This happened before the revelation of the divine prohibition of betting. They bet a certain amount of wealth with Abū Bakr and both the parties handed over the amount wagered to a certain person. Then they came back the next morning and said: “O Abū Bakr, al-biḍᶜ (a few) is applied to the numbers from three to nine. You should determine a specific number of years so that we take it as a reference point.”