I heard one of our companions relate that the ḥāfiẓ was ordered to set down his creed in writing. He therefore wrote: “I state such-and-such because Allah says such-and-such; and I state such-and-such because Allah says such-and-such and because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) says such-and-such,” continuing in that fashion until he had covered every question on which they opposed him.

When al-Malik al-Kāmil looked at the document he said, “What can I possibly say to this? The man is simply repeating the words of Allah and of His Messenger!”

I said (1): Abū al-Muẓaffar the preacher reports in Mirʾāt al-Zamān that al-Ḥāfiẓ ʿAbd al-Ghanī used to read hadith after the Friday prayer. The judge Muḥyī al-Dīn, the orator Ḍiyāʾ al-Dīn, and a group of others gathered and went up to the Citadel, telling its governor, “This man has led the people astray and espouses anthropomorphism (tashbīh).”

They convened a session for him and he debated with them. They took him to task on several points, among them his statement, “I do not proclaim His transcendence in a way that would deny the reality of His descending,” his saying, “Allah was and there was no place, and He is not today as He was then,” and the issue of letter and sound. They argued: “If He is not as He was, you have ascribed place to Him; and if you do not deny Him the reality of descending, you have allowed for movement. As for letter and sound, nothing authentic has been transmitted from your Imām (2); he merely said that it is the speech of Allah—that is, uncreated.”

Voices were raised, and the governor of the Citadel, al-Ṣārim Barghash, said, “All of these people are in error and you alone are upon the truth?” He replied, “Yes.”

He therefore ordered that his pulpit be smashed.

He (the narrator) continued: The ḥāfiẓ left for Baʿlabakk and then travelled on to Egypt …, until he said:

The jurists of Egypt issued a legal opinion permitting his blood, declaring, “He corrupts people’s beliefs and is associated with corporealism (tajsīm).”

The vizier accordingly wrote an order banishing him to the Maghrib, but the ḥāfiẓ died before the decree arrived.