so I brought out his books. (1)

I say: The last person to transmit from him was Abū al-ʿIzz ibn Kādash.

Abū al-Faḍl ibn Khayrūn said: “He was a man of great standing, highly favoured by the ruler, one of the leading imams. He produced fine compositions in every discipline. He died eleven days after the jurist-judge Abū al-Ṭayyib.” (2)

Abū ʿAmr ibn al-Ṣalāḥ said: “He is suspected of Muʿtazilī leanings (3). I used to interpret his words charitably and offer excuses for him, until I found that on occasion he actually preferred some of their positions. In his Qurʾānic commentary he wrote: ‘He does not will the worship of idols.’

“On the verse, ‘We have appointed for every prophet an enemy’ (al-Anʿām 6:112), he said: ‘Its meaning is: We judged them to be enemies, or We left them upon their enmity and did not prevent them from it.’

“His tafsīr is therefore extremely harmful. He did not openly claim affiliation with the Muʿtazila; rather, he kept it hidden. Yet while he disagreed with them on the question of the Qurʾān’s createdness, he agreed with them on predestination. (4) Commenting on the verse, ‘Indeed, all things We created by decree’ (al-Qamar 54:49), he said: ‘That is, by a prior judgment.’

“He did not deem transmission by ijāzah (formal written licence) to be valid.”

Al-Khaṭīb of Mosul narrated—through Ibn Badrān al-Ḥulwānī—from al-Māwardī.