Surah Al-Kahf (18) — Ayah 109

(Ayah 109) ➊ { قُلْ لَّوْ كَانَ الْبَحْرُ مِدَادًا …:} Because the sea is a creation which has a limit and an end, whereas the Word of Allah is His attribute, not a creation; neither does Allah’s Essence have any end nor do His attributes. If all the seas were to become ink to write the Words of Allah and all the trees on earth were to become pens, and then we were to bring even more ink, rather, if seven more seas were to become ink, all would be exhausted, but the Words of Allah would not be exhausted. (See Luqman: 27) Because a limited thing can never encompass the infinite and unlimited.

➋ From this it is known that just as Allah’s Essence is eternal and everlasting, so is His attribute of speech, like His other attributes, eternal and everlasting. He speaks whenever He wills, to whomever He wills, whatever He wills; there is no end to His speech, He will always be able to speak, as He said regarding the messengers: «{ مِنْهُمْ مَّنْ كَلَّمَ اللّٰهُ }» [ البقرۃ : ۲۵۳ ] “Of them, Allah spoke to some.” And He said: «وَ كَلَّمَ اللّٰهُ مُوْسٰى تَكْلِيْمًا » [ النساء : ۱۶۴] “And Allah spoke to Musa directly.” And He said: «{ وَ اِنْ اَحَدٌ مِّنَ الْمُشْرِكِيْنَ اسْتَجَارَكَ فَاَجِرْهُ حَتّٰى يَسْمَعَ كَلٰمَ اللّٰهِ }» [ التوبۃ : ۶ ] “And if any of the polytheists seeks your protection, then grant him protection so that he may hear the Word of Allah.” Despite such clear verses, many misguided sects among the Muslims deny the attribute of speech for Allah. According to them, Allah’s speech is the meanings that are within His Essence. He cannot speak, nor does He have words or a voice. Words and voice are His creation, so this Qur’an too is a creation, not the Word of Allah. Only its meaning and concept is Allah’s attribute. Thus, some of them have said that if in prayer, the meaning of a Qur’anic verse is expressed in Persian, Urdu, or any other language instead of Arabic words, the prayer is valid, because the recitation of the Qur’an has been done. Whereas, according to Allah’s statement, the Qur’an is in Arabic. See Surah Yusuf (3), etc. Imam Ahl al-Sunnah Ahmad ibn Hanbal (may Allah have mercy on him) endured countless hardships from these misguided sects, but continued to declare the Qur’an as the Word of Allah, did not accept it as a creation, and did not let the Ummah deviate from the straight path. How can a person consider himself capable of speech and regard muteness as a defect for himself, even though a mute person also has meanings in his heart, but regarding the One who possesses all perfect attributes, say that He neither speaks nor hears, nor sees, nor can anyone hear His speech? Such a helpless Lord be theirs; the Lord mentioned in the Qur’an and Hadith speaks, hears, and possesses all attributes of perfection. Some prophets themselves heard His speech, some received it through an angel, and the speech that came through the messengers, we read and hear it. [ وَالْحَمْدُ لِلّٰہِ عَلٰی نِعَمِہِ الشَّامِلَۃِ وَ آلَائِہِ الْکَامِلَۃِ ]

➌ Here, a person is compelled to think, why did these rationalists deny the attributes? Then why did they insist so much on calling the words of the Qur’an a creation, that whoever does not call the Qur’an a creation is to be removed from every official position, to the extent that he cannot be a preacher or imam of any mosque, nor can he teach in any mosque on his own, nor give lessons, and why did the Ahl al-Sunnah, especially their Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal (may Allah have mercy on him), show such severity in denying this and endure so much hardship? The answer is that after the best generations passed, due to practical weaknesses, people’s temperaments began to consider the restrictions of acting upon the Qur’an and Sunnah as burdensome, and these two things were also obstacles in the absolute rule of the rulers, as we see in most rulers and their Islamic ideological councils’ scholars nowadays. Thus, the corrupt scholars, in the name of reason, began to try to remove everything that was an obstacle to their freedom. In those days, Ma’mun al-Rashid had Greek books translated. There is no harm in benefiting from the experiences of previous people in worldly matters, but along with that, Greek philosophy was also translated, so their beliefs about Allah also influenced these people. Thus, the Mu’tazilah, i.e., the rationalists, accepted some of their fundamental principles, such as: only one thing can proceed from one; the locus of occurrences is itself an occurrence, i.e., that from which something new comes into existence cannot be the eternal Essence, i.e., Allah. Therefore, Allah neither sees, nor hears, nor speaks, nor can move, nor is He on the Throne, nor descends to the sky, nor will He come to the earth on the Day of Resurrection, because all these are occurrences. These beliefs were a clear denial of the Qur’an and Hadith, because according to the Qur’an, Allah is at every moment in a new state, as He said: «{ كُلَّ يَوْمٍ هُوَ فِيْ شَاْنٍ }» [ الرحمٰن : ۲۹ ] “Every day He is in (a new) affair.” He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing, He will come to the earth on the Day of Resurrection, etc. In response to these people, among Muslim scholars, some theologians arose who answered them, but unfortunately, they accepted their principles. Thus, to protect the philosophers’ principles, they interpreted and even distorted the Qur’an and Hadith. Since speech is an occurrence, i.e., every word comes anew after the previous one, and according to them, Allah cannot be the locus of such things, so to deny Allah’s speech, they resorted to interpretation and said that the meanings of the Qur’an are eternal, they are within Allah’s Essence, but the words are created; the real meaning, in whatever language and words it is expressed, that is the Qur’an. As for Hadith, they had already dismissed it by saying that Hadith cannot add to the Qur’an, and according to them, if a Hadith narrated by a non-jurist companion contradicts analogy, it will be rejected. As for the Qur’an, to make arbitrary changes, they denied that its words are the Word of Allah, and considered only the meaning and concept as the Qur’an. Among the Jews and Christians, the door to distortion was opened in the same way, that the translations of the Torah and Gospel were called the Word of Allah, until the original language books disappeared from the world. Changing the translations was not difficult, so now those books are no longer reliable. Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal (may Allah have mercy on him), in response to their rational deceptions, used to say: Recite any verse or Hadith in which it is stated that the Qur’an is a creation, and we will accept it. The Imam remained firm on this. He insisted that the words of the Qur’an themselves are the Word of Allah, as a result of which the Qur’an remained preserved and the Hadith remained authoritative. This was the fulfillment of the promise of «{ اِنَّا نَحْنُ نَزَّلْنَا الذِّكْرَ وَ اِنَّا لَهٗ لَحٰفِظُوْنَ }» [ الحجر : ۹ ]. These people, to destroy the spiritual strength of the Muslims, declared faith to be only an act of the heart, and confession to be necessary only for being accepted as a Muslim; even if one does not confess, he is a true believer in the sight of Allah, though not in the sight of people. If he confesses but does not act, he is a true believer in the sight of Allah and the Muslims. It was the Ahl al-Sunnah hadith scholars who defended Islam against these attacks and endured whatever hardships befell them. Many failed this test, many were honored with martyrdom. Even now, those who adhere to the Qur’an and Hadith are in confrontation with such people who do not accept the words of the Qur’an as the Word of Allah, nor do they accept Allah’s attributes of hearing, seeing, mercy, descending, ascending, or being on the Throne. Along with this, they also pose as the custodians of Islam. It is only by Allah’s grace that the scholars who adhere to the Qur’an and Sunnah continue to explain the falsehood of these people’s beliefs with clear proofs and do not allow the slightest harm to come to the Qur’an and Hadith, nor do they tolerate any verbal or conceptual distortion in them. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: [ يَرِثُ هٰذَا الْعِلْمَ مِنْ كُلِّ خَلَفٍ عُدُوْلُهُ يَنْفُوْنَ عَنْهُ تَأْوِيْلَ الْجَاهِلِيْنَ وَانْتِحَالَ الْمُبْطِلِيْنَ وَ تَحْرِيْفَ الْغَالِيْنَ ] [ السنن الکبریٰ للبیھقی : 209/10، ح : ۲۱۴۳۹ ] “The just people among those who come after me will inherit this knowledge, removing from it the interpretations of the ignorant, the fabrications of the false ones, and the distortions of the extremists.” [ اَللّٰھُمَّ اجْعَلْنَا مِنْھُمْ ]