On Thursday, the sixth of Rabiʿ al-Akhir in the year seven hundred AH, another session was convened for the Shaykh in the Ṣāliḥiyya Madrasa in Cairo, attended by the judges and many others.

Among the things that took place at that gathering—as I was informed—someone said to the Shaykh, “Seek the forgiveness of Allah the All-Great and repent to Him!” (1)

The Shaykh replied, “We all seek the forgiveness of Allah the All-Great and repent to Him.” Then he turned to one of them and said, “Seek the forgiveness of Allah the All-Great and repent to Him!” The man answered, “I seek the forgiveness of Allah the All-Great and repent to Him.” He said the same to a second and then a third, and each of them gave the same reply.

They then said to the Shaykh, “Repent to Allah for such-and-such”—and certain statements were mentioned to him (2).

He said, “If I have uttered anything that requires repentance, then I repent of it.”

Someone retorted, “That is not repentance.”

The Shaykh responded to him, declared him ignorant, and an exchange followed whose details are too lengthy to record here.

A letter from the Shaykh, dated the night of Friday the fourteenth of the month, later arrived. In it he states that a third session had been held for him in the Ṣāliḥiyya Madrasa in Cairo after Muḥannā’s departure on Thursday the sixth of the month; that good had come of it; and that his remaining there entails various benefits and advantages (3).