Earlier today I was having a discussion with a a close friend of mine who does hold to the position of the Quran being uncreated, in light of this he also denied the idea of creation ex nihilo as he believes such an idea to be contradictory to the understanding of an eternal Quran. Although I understand we as Shia do not believe that the Quran is eternal, what is our view on creation ex nihilo? I rationally concluded from Quran 42:11 that such a thing is the only plausible explanation for creation as being eternal is a characteristic of Allah (SWT) and thus nothing can be like him in this regard. Am I wrong in my understanding of this?

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If we were to say that the Quran is pre-existent just as God is then this poses several problems.

1. You would be saying that the Quran is Qadeem (eternal). This would imply that there were two things that were God and not just One God.
2. If there were more than one God than they would also be in need of each other and this neediness is a deficiency. God has no deficiencies.
3. If the Quran was a separate independent thing alongside of God than this would mean we would need to have some gap to differentiate between them and this would mean that all of them would be in need of these gaps and God is free of need from anything, thus it is impossible for God to have any partner.

These same points can be applied to the Trinitarian belief of Christianity. If God is One Essence but in three different forms or parts than all of these forms would have to have been Qadeem. However, we see that Jesus (as) which is the 2nd part of this trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit was himself created and born of the virgin Mary (as). Secondly, If God were made up of three forms then it would mean that God would be in need of His parts to be complete. Thirdly, if all of the attributes of Father, Son and Holy Spirit are separate from His essence than this would mean we would need to have some gap to differentiate between them and this would mean that all of them would be in need of these gaps and God is free of need from anything, thus it is impossible for God to have any partner.