The Quran is the Speech of Allah

The doctrine that the Quran is the eternal, uncreated speech of Allah (Kalam Allah ghayr makhluq) is one of the most important and historically contested points in Sunni theology. Al-Aqeedah al-Tahawiyyah addresses this subject with precision, reflecting the position that the early Imams — including Ahmad ibn Hanbal, whose imprisonment and persecution for this doctrine was a defining moment of Sunni history — defended at great personal cost.

Al-Tahawi states: 'The Quran is the speech of Allah. It came from Him as speech (kalam) without specifying how (bila kayf). He sent it down to His Messenger as revelation. The believers affirm this as absolute truth. They are certain that it is — in reality — the speech of Allah, the Exalted, and it is not created like the speech of human beings.'

The historical context of this declaration is essential. During the reign of the Abbasid Caliph al-Ma'mun (198–218 AH), the Mu'tazili doctrine of the 'createdness of the Quran' (khalq al-Quran) was imposed as state theology. The Mu'tazilah argued that the Quran must be created, because if it were eternal, it would be a co-eternal entity alongside Allah — which they believed compromised divine oneness. Those who refused to affirm this doctrine were subjected to the Mihna (Inquisition). Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal famously endured imprisonment and flogging rather than affirm the createdness of the Quran — a stand that became the defining act of Sunni resistance to rationalist theological deviation.

The mainstream Sunni position, which al-Tahawi articulates, holds that the Quran as Allah's real speech is one of His eternal attributes (sifat dhatiyan), not a created thing. The distinction is important: the ink on the page, the sound of human recitation, and the paper of the mushaf are all created — but the Quran as the actual speech and word of Allah is uncreated. This was the position of the Salaf and of the Imams of the four legal schools.

The theological underpinning is that speech (kalam) is an attribute of Allah, and His attributes — like His knowledge, power, will, and life — are eternal and uncreated. Just as we would not say that Allah's knowledge is created, we do not say that His speech is created. The Quran repeatedly refers to itself as 'the speech of Allah' (Kalam Allah) and describes itself as being 'from Allah' in a direct and uncreated sense.

For the believer, this doctrine has profound implications for how the Quran is to be received and engaged with. If the Quran is truly Allah's uncreated speech — His direct address to humanity — then its commands are absolute, its prohibitions inviolable, its promises certain, and its guidance perfect. No human judgment has the right to override it, and no cultural convention can supersede it. The elevation of the Quran to the status of uncreated divine speech is thus not merely an abstract theological point but the foundation for its authority in every domain of life.