He likewise exposed to the Christians the depths of their deviation and the innovations they had introduced into the religion of Jesus. He debated them until it became plain that they were like drunken wanderers, lost in their own malignant dispositions.

He refuted the earliest philosophical texts with transmitted rulings and sound rational wisdom, firmly establishing for their authors the proofs of prophethood and charging their positions time and again.

He countered Jahm, Jaʿd ibn Dirham, and Bishr al-Marīsī, the mainstay of the Jahmite camp—heretics who have ruined multitudes through the diseased beliefs of their hearts.

He debated every one of the Muʿtazilites, unsheathing against them the sword of irrefutable evidence. Those who claim that Allah’s speech is but part of His creation—may they be hurled headlong into the depths of a scorching fire.

He likewise engaged the elders of the Rāfiḍites, confronting them with the ʿUmari staff, for they had shown enmity toward the Prophet’s chosen Companions and had reviled them; thus, at root they are the worst of creation. In their ignorant aggression and slander they are the most ill-omened of humankind and the most mendacious of all sects (1).

How many deviations they have introduced into our religion! No welcome at all, then, to the Qadarite faction (2)—adversaries of Allah; ruin to their creed, and may they be cast far away like the dualistic Manicheans.

He refuted yet another group whose souls had been reared on sheer negation and the denial of the divine attributes without a shred of proof (3). He rebutted the advocates of transmigration when they brazenly ventured into grave matters, scattering them in every valley, for they claim that nothing exists save the intermediate realm of the barzakh.