The orthodox believe that God is really a speaker: the Mutazilites deny this, and say that He is only called a speaker because He is the originator of words and sounds. They also bring the following objections to bear against the doctrine of the eternity of the Quran. (1) It is written in Arabic, it descended, is read, is heard, and is written. It was the subject of a miracle. It is divided into parts and some verses are abrogated by others. (2) Events are described in the past tense, but if the Quran had been eternal the future tense would have been used. (3) The Quran contains commands and prohibitions; if it is eternal who were commanded and who were admonished? (4) If it has existed from eternity it must exist to eternity, and so even in the last day, and in the next world, men will be under the obligation of performing the same religious duties as they do now, and of keeping all the outward precepts of the law. (5) If the Quran is eternal, then there are two eternals. The position thus assailed was not at first a hard and fast dogma of Islam. It was more a speculative opinion than anything else, but the opposition of the Mutazilites soon led all who wished to be considered orthodox to become not only stout assertors of the eternity of the Quran, but to give up their lives in defence of what they believed to be true. The Mutazilites by asserting the subjective nature of the Quranic inspiration brought the book itself within the reach of criticism. This was too much for orthodox Islam to bear even though the Khalif Mamun in the {137} year 212 A.H. issued a fatva declaring that all who asserted the eternity of the Quran were guilty of heresy. Some six years after this, the Imam Ahmad Ibn Hanbal was severely beaten, and then imprisoned because he refused to assent to the truth of the decree issued by the Khalif. Al Buwaiti, a famous disciple of As-Shafa'i, used an ingenious argument to fortify his own mind when being punished by the order of the Khalif. He was taken all the way from Cairo to Baghdad and told to confess that the Quran was created. On his refusal, he was imprisoned at Baghdad and there remained in chains till the day of his death. As Ar-Rabi Ibn Sulaiman says: "I saw Al Buwaiti mounted on a mule: round his neck was a wooden collar, on his legs were fetters, from these to the collar extended an iron chain to which was attached a clog weighing fifty pounds. Whilst they led him on he continued repeating these words, 'Almighty God created the world by means of the word _Be!_ Now, if that word was created, one created thing would have created another.'"[121] Al Buwaiti here refers to the verse, "Verily our speech unto a thing when we will the same, is that we only say to it, 'Be,' and it is,--Kun fayakuna." (Sura xxxvi. 82). This, in the way Al Buwaiti applied it, is a standing argument of the orthodox to prove the eternity of the Quran.