Quranic createdness

In Islamic theology, createdness of the Qurʾān (خلق القرآن, ḫalq al-qurʾān) is the doctrinal position that the Quran was created rather than having always existed and thus being "uncreated."

One of the main areas of debate in aqida (Muslim theology) was the divine attribute of kalam (lit. word, speech) revealing itself through waḥy "revelation". Kalam is a counterpart to 'aql (Greek logos, "word," and thus "reason").^[1] If the ʿaql/logos was part of God's essence or nature, then the Qur'an must therefore not be created. On the other hand, the Qur'an is written in Arabic (human speech) in the Arabic script, neither of which is eternal.^[2]

The dispute over which position was factual became a significant point of contention in early Islam. The rationalist philosophical school known as the Mu'tazilites held that if the Quran is God's word, then logically, God "must have preceded his own speech".^[3] The Mu'tazilites and the Jahmites negated all the attributes of God, and believed that God could not speak, hence the Quran was not the literal word of God. It was instead a metaphor for his will.^[4]

In the Muslim world today, the opposite point of view—that the Quran is uncreated—is the accepted stance among Sunni Muslims. Shia Muslims argue for the createdness of the Quran.

^ "The Emergence of Kalām (Muslim Theology) in the Classical Period" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 April 2024.
^ Peters, J. R. T. M. (1980). "La théologie musulmane et l'étude du langage". Histoire. Épistémologie. Langage (in French). 2 (1: Éléments d'Histoire de la tradition linguistique arabe). Paris: Société d'histoire et d'Épistémologie des Sciences du Langage: 9–19. doi:10.3406/hel.1980.1049. ISSN 1638-1580. Archived from the original on 30 November 2021. Retrieved 30 November 2021.
^ Kadri, Sadakat (2012). Heaven on Earth: A Journey Through Shari'a Law from the Deserts of Ancient Arabia ... macmillan. p. 77. ISBN 9780099523277.
^ RECONCILING REASON AND REVELATION IN THE WRITINGS OF IBN TAYMIYYA (d.728/1328): An Analytical Study of Ibn Taymiyya BY YASIR QADHI. Yale University, 2013. Page 19: "Most early Muslim references state that the first person to begin questioning the nature of God’s Attributes was a certain enigmatic Jaʿd b. Dirham (d.cir. 110/728). If these early sources are to be trusted, we learn that Jaʿd claimed, inter alia, that God could not ‘love’ Abraham nor did He ‘speak’ to Moses. Based on his denial of God’s ability to speak, he argued that the Qurʾān must actually be God’s speech in a metaphorical manner, and not actually God’s speech"

[1] "The Emergence of Kalām (Muslim Theology) in the Classical Period" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 April 2024.

[Peters_1980-2] Peters, J. R. T. M. (1980). "La théologie musulmane et l'étude du langage". Histoire. Épistémologie. Langage (in French). 2 (1: Éléments d'Histoire de la tradition linguistique arabe). Paris: Société d'histoire et d'Épistémologie des Sciences du Langage: 9–19. doi:10.3406/hel.1980.1049. ISSN 1638-1580. Archived from the original on 30 November 2021. Retrieved 30 November 2021.

[SKHE-77-3] Kadri, Sadakat (2012). Heaven on Earth: A Journey Through Shari'a Law from the Deserts of Ancient Arabia ... macmillan. p. 77. ISBN 9780099523277.

[4] RECONCILING REASON AND REVELATION IN THE WRITINGS OF IBN TAYMIYYA (d.728/1328): An Analytical Study of Ibn Taymiyya BY YASIR QADHI. Yale University, 2013. Page 19: "Most early Muslim references state that the first person to begin questioning the nature of God’s Attributes was a certain enigmatic Jaʿd b. Dirham (d.cir. 110/728). If these early sources are to be trusted, we learn that Jaʿd claimed, inter alia, that God could not ‘love’ Abraham nor did He ‘speak’ to Moses. Based on his denial of God’s ability to speak, he argued that the Qurʾān must actually be God’s speech in a metaphorical manner, and not actually God’s speech"

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