“What do you say about the Qurʾan?” asked ʿAbd al-Raḥmān.
“What do you say about God’s knowledge?” I asked. He fell silent.
One of the others broke in. “But didn’t God say, «God is the creator of all things»?82 And isn’t the Qurʾan a thing?”
“God also mentioned a wind,” I said, “that would «destroy everything at the behest of its Lord,»83 but it destroyed only what He wanted it to.”84
Then another one spoke up: “God says, «Whenever any new admonition comes to them from their Lord.»85 How can something be new without having been created?”
I replied: “God also said, «Ṣād. By the Qurʾan, containing the admonition.»86 This admonition is the Qurʾan. In the other verse there’s no ‘the.’”
One of them cited the Hadith of ʿImrān ibn Ḥuṣayn that God created the remembrance. “That’s wrong,” I said. “I have it on more than one source that he said, ‘God wrote the remembrance.’”
Next they tried arguing with me using the Hadith of Ibn Masʿūd: “God has created nothing—not the Garden or the Fire or the heavens or the earth—greater than the Throne Verse.”
I said: “The word ‘created’ applies to the Garden, the Fire, the heavens, and the earth, but not to the Qurʾan.”
One of them cited the Hadith of Khabbāb: “You there! Try as you may to come nearer to God, you will find nothing dearer to Him by which to approach Him than His word.”87
“Yes,” I said, “that’s what it says.”
Ibn Abī Duʾād glared at me.
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قال: وكان يتكلم هذا فأَردّ عليه ويتكلم هذا فأردّ عليه فإذا انقطع الرجل منهم اعترض ابن أبي دؤاد فيقول: يا أمير المؤمنين هو والله ضالّ مُضلّ مبتدِع.
قال أبي: فيقول: كلِّموه، ناظروه.
فيكلّمني هذا فأردّ عليه ويكلّمني هذا فأَردّ عليه، فإذا انقطعوا يقول لي، يعني المعتصم: ويحك يا أحمد! ما تقول؟ فأقول: يا أمير المؤمنين أعطوني شيئًا من كتاب الله عزّ وجلّ أَو سُنّة رسول الله صلّى الله عليه وسلّم حتى أقولَ به.
فيقول ابن أبي دؤاد: وأنت لا تقول إلا ما في كتاب الله أو سنّة رسول الله؟
فقلت له: تَأوَّلتَ تَأويلاً فأنت أَعلم وما تأَولتُ، ما يُحبَس عليه ويُقَيَّد عليه.
And so it went. One of them would say something, and I would rebut him. Then another would speak and I would rebut him too. Whenever one of his men was stymied, Ibn Abī Duʾād would interrupt: “Commander of the Faithful! By God, he’s misguided, and misleading, and a heretical innovator!”
But al-Muʿtaṣim kept saying, “Talk to him! Debate him!”
So again one of them would say something, and I would rebut him. Then another would speak and I would rebut him too. When none of them had anything left to say, he—meaning al-Muʿtaṣim—said, “Come on, Aḥmad! Speak up!”
“Commander of the Faithful,” I replied, “give me something I can agree to—something from the Book of God or the sunnah of His Emissary.”
At that, Ibn Abī Duʾād exclaimed, “What! You only repeat what’s in the Qurʾan or the sunnah of His Emissary?”
“You have an interpretation,” I said, “and that’s your affair, but it’s nothing to lock people up for, or put them in chains.”
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أخبرنا عبد الملك بن أبي القاسم قال: أخبرنا عبد الله بن محمّد الأنصاري قال: أخبرنا أبو يعقوب قال: أخبرني جَدّي قال: أخبرنا محمّد بن أبي جعفر المُنْذِري وأبو أحمد بن أبي أُسامة قالا:
سمعنا محمّد بن إبراهيم البُوشَنْجي قال: حدثني بعض أصحابنا أنّ ابن أبي دُؤاد أقبل على أحمد يكلّمه فلم يلتفت إليه أحمد حتى قال المعتصم لأحمد: ألا تُكلّم أبا عبد الله؟ فقال أحمد: لستُ أعرفه من أهل العِلم فأُكلّمه.
We cite ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Abī l-Qāsim, who cites ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad al-Anṣārī, who cites Abū Yaʿqūb, who cites his grandfather, who cites Muḥammad ibn Abī Jaʿfar al-Mundhirī, who along with Abū Aḥmad ibn Abī Usāmah heard Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Būshanjī report:
[Al-Būshanjī:] One of my associates reported that Ibn Abī Duʾād confronted Aḥmad and tried to engage him in debate but Aḥmad ignored him. Eventually al-Muʿtaṣim asked Aḥmad why he wouldn’t address Ibn Abī Duʾād.
“I speak only with men of learning,” said Aḥmad.
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أخبرنا ابن ناصر قال: أخبرنا ابن١ يوسف قال: أخبرنا البرمكي قال: حدثنا ابن مردك قال: حدثنا ابن أبي حاتم قال:
حدثنا صالح بن أحمد قال: جعل ابن أبي دؤاد يقول: يا أمير المؤمنين والله لئن أجابك لَهو أحبُّ إليّ من مائة ألف دينار ومائة ألفِ دينار – فيعدّ من ذلك ما شاء الله – قال: فقال، يعني المعتصم : واللهِ لئن أجابني لأُطلقنّ عنه بيدي ولأركبنّ إِليه بجُندي ولأطأَنّ عَقِبَه. ثم قال: يا أحمد والله إنّي عليك لَشفيق وإنّي لأُشفق عليك كشفقتي على هارون ابني، ما تقول؟ فأقول: أعطوني شيئًا من كتاب الله عزّ وجلّ أو سنّة رسوله.
١ د: ابو.
We cite Ibn Nāṣir,