Quranic createdness

Createdness refers to the doctrinal position that the Qur’an is created. The issue of whether the Qur’an is eternal or created became a significant point of contention in early Islam. Mu’tazilite doctrine holds that the Qur’an is the created divine word while the dominant varieties of Muslim theology consider the Quran to be co-eternal with God and hence, uncreated. Sufi philosophers view the question as artificial or wrongly framed. While this controversy between theologians might otherwise have languished in obscurity, in 827 CE, Abassid Caliph Abd Allah al-Ma’mun publicly adopted the doctrine of createdness, instituting a mihna (test) to “ensure acquiescence in this doctrine” in 833 CE. Scholars such as John A. Nawas and Walter M. Patton, have advanced various hypotheses in an attempt to account for the caliph’s actions. These hypotheses have tended to follow a somewhat secularist narrative, alternately foregrounding either al-Ma’mun’s religious motivations or his political...