Praise be to Allah, and may peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah.
The Noble Qur’an is the Speech of Allah, in its words, letters, and meanings. Allah, Glorified and Exalted, spoke it; Jibrīl (Gabriel), peace be upon him, heard it from Him and conveyed it to the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him.
Allah تعالى says:
“Indeed, it is a Noble Qur’an, in a Preserved Book. None touch it except the purified. A revelation from the Lord of the worlds.” [Al-Wāqi‘ah 56:77–80]
And He says:
“Alif-Lām-Mīm. The revelation of the Book, about which there is no doubt, is from the Lord of the worlds.” [As-Sajdah 32:1–2]
And He says:
“The revelation of the Book is from Allah, the Almighty, the All-Wise.” [Az-Zumar 39:1]
Thus, the Qur’an is part of the Speech of Allah. His Speech is one of His attributes. Therefore, Ahl as-Sunnah wal-Jamā‘ah affirm that the Qur’an is not created, and whoever says that it is created has contradicted the position of Ahl as-Sunnah on this matter.
Imam at-Tahāwī, may Allah have mercy on him, said in his creed:
“The Qur’an is the Speech of Allah. It originated from Him without asking how; He sent it down to His Messenger as revelation. The believers affirmed this as truth and became certain that it is truly the Speech of Allah, not created like the speech of created beings.”
Ibn Qudāmah, may Allah have mercy on him, said in Lum‘at al-I‘tiqād:
“Among the Speech of Allah, Glorified and Exalted, is the Mighty Qur’an. It is the clear Book of Allah, His firm rope, His straight path, and the revelation of the Lord of the worlds. The Trustworthy Spirit brought it down to the heart of the master of the messengers, in a clear Arabic tongue. It was sent down and is not created; from Him it originated and to Him it returns.”
Their statement that the Qur’an “originated from Him” means that Allah تعالى is the One who spoke it. It is therefore His Speech, originating from Him.
As for the meaning of “and to Him it returns,” it refers to what has been reported in narrations that the Qur’an will be taken away at the end of time from people’s hearts and from the written copies, so that nothing of it will remain in hearts or copies.
Al-Hāfiz Ḍiyā’ ad-Dīn al-Maqdisī, may Allah have mercy on him, devoted a treatise to this issue entitled: “The Qur’an’s Distinction in Returning to the Most Merciful.”
The word “ancient” (qadīm) when used to describe the Qur’an or the Speech of Allah may be intended to convey two different meanings.
A person may say “the Qur’an is ancient” intending that the Qur’an is the Speech of Allah, that it is not created, and that Allah has always been speaking whenever He wills, speaking whatever He wills and whenever He wills.
This meaning is correct in terms of what the speaker intends.
Some scholars of Ahl as-Sunnah used the word “ancient” when discussing the Speech of Allah in this sense.
Abū al-Qāsim al-Lālakā’ī, may Allah have mercy on him, said in Sharh Usūl I‘tiqād Ahl as-Sunnah wal-Jamā‘ah:
“A presentation of what has been narrated from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, indicating that the Qur’an is among the ancient attributes of Allah.”
Ibn Qudāmah, may Allah have mercy on him, also described Allah’s Speech as “ancient Speech” in Lum‘at al-I‘tiqād, saying:
“Among the attributes of Allah تعالى is that He speaks with ancient Speech, which whomever He wills among His creation hears from Him.”
Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, may Allah have mercy on him, explained that the Salaf used to say that Allah تعالى has always been speaking whenever He wills. Describing Allah’s Speech as ancient, when what is meant is the eternity of the category of Speech, rather than the eternity of a particular speech, is therefore a correct meaning.
He said:
“The Salaf said: The Qur’an is the Speech of Allah, sent down and not created. They said: He has always been speaking whenever He wills. Thus, they explained that the Speech of Allah is ancient, meaning that its category is ancient and has always existed.”
He then said:
“None of them said that the particular speech itself is ancient, nor did any of them say that the Qur’an is ancient. Rather, they said: It is the Speech of Allah, sent down and not created.”
He explained that when Allah speaks the Qur’an by His will and choice, the Qur’an is His Speech, sent down from Him and not created, while Allah has always been speaking whenever He wills.
This distinction is important because the eternity of the category of Speech does not mean that every particular speech uttered by Allah is eternal and coexistent with His Essence.
A person may intend by saying “the Qur’an is ancient” another meaning: that the Qur’an is an eternal meaning subsisting in Allah’s Essence, or that Allah spoke the Qur’an, with its letters and meanings, in pre-eternity, and then did not subsequently speak by His will and choice.
This is the meaning rejected by Ahl as-Sunnah, who regarded it as one of the later opinions that arose concerning the attribute of Speech.
Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah explained that the Salaf did not say that the particular speech itself is ancient, nor did they say that the Qur’an is ancient in this sense.
Likewise, the views that make Allah’s Speech a single meaning subsisting in His Essence, or that regard the letters and sounds of the Qur’an as eternally subsisting in Allah’s Essence in this manner, are not transmitted from the Companions, the Tābi‘ūn, or the early leading scholars of Islam.
Based on the above, the word “ancient” is an ambiguous expression. It may mean something correct: that the Speech of Allah is not created and that Allah has always been speaking whenever He wills. It may also mean something false: that a particular speech is eternal and has no connection to Allah’s will and choice.
Therefore, it is preferable and safer to avoid describing the Qur’an simply as “ancient”, and instead use the expressions reported from the Salaf, such as:
“The Qur’an is the Speech of Allah, sent down and not created; from Him it originated and to Him it returns.”
This wording is clearer and farther removed from ambiguity.
If someone says:
“The Qur’an is ancient,”
and intends by this that it is the Speech of Allah, not created, and that Allah has always been speaking whenever He wills, with His Speech connected to His will and choice, then the intended meaning is correct, although it is preferable for him to use the expressions transmitted from the Salaf because they are safer and clearer.
But if he intends that the particular Speech of Allah is eternally ancient, and that Allah does not speak according to His will and choice, then this meaning is false, and the expression he used is likewise an ambiguous, later-introduced expression.
Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, may Allah have mercy on him, said:
“The followers of the Salaf say: The Speech of Allah is ancient, meaning that He has always been speaking whenever He wills. They do not say that the particular word is ancient... But these people believed that the Qur’an and all of Allah’s Speech are eternally ancient in themselves, and that Allah does not speak by His will and power.”
He then explained that such views are not known from the Companions, the Tābi‘ūn, or the renowned early scholars of Islam known for knowledge and religion.
The Noble Qur’an is the Speech of Allah and is not created.
The statement of Ahl as-Sunnah, “From Him it originated and to Him it returns,” means that Allah spoke the Qur’an and that it will be taken away at the end of time, as reported in the narrations.
The word “ancient” when used to describe the Speech of Allah is capable of several meanings.
If it means that the category of Allah’s Speech is eternal and that Allah has always been speaking whenever He wills, this is a correct meaning.
If it means that a particular speech, such as the Qur’an, is eternally ancient and subsists in Allah’s Essence, and that Allah does not speak according to His will and choice, then this meaning is false.
Therefore, it is preferable and safer not to simply describe the Qur’an as “ancient,” but rather to say what was reported from the Salaf: “The Qur’an is the Speech of Allah, sent down and not created; from Him it originated and to Him it returns.”
And Allah knows best.