—a work the like of which had never before been written for them; then Allah laid the truth bare for us, so we withdrew from that position.

He also wrote Kitab al-Radd ʿala Ibn al-Rawandi (Refutation of Ibn al-Rawandi); Kitab al-Qamiʿ fi al-Radd ʿala al-Khalidi (The Suppressor: A Rebuttal of al-Khalidi); Kitab Adab al-Jadal (The Etiquette of Disputation); Kitab Jawab al-Khurasaniyyah (Response to the Khurasanis); Kitab Jawab al-Sirafiyyin (Response to the Sirafis); Jawab al-Jurjaniyyin (Response to the Jurjanis); Kitab al-Masaʾil al-Manthurah al-Baghdadiyyah (The Scattered Baghdadi Questions); Kitab al-Funun fi al-Radd ʿala al-Mulhidin (Disciplines in Refuting the Atheists); Kitab al-Nawadir fi Daqaʾiq al-Kalam (Rare Points on the Subtleties of Theology); and Kitab Tafsir al-Quran (Exegesis of the Quran).

He mentioned many other books beyond these.

After al-ʿUmad he composed several additional works which Ibn Furak listed in Tabyin Kadhib al-Muftari (1).

I have come across a statement by al-Ashʿari that pleased me; it is firmly established, transmitted by al-Bayhaqi. I heard Abu Hazim al-ʿAbdawi say, “I heard Zahir ibn Ahmad al-Sarakhsī relate: When the appointed time of Abu al-Hasan al-Ashʿari’s death drew near while he was staying in my house in Baghdad, he summoned me. I went to him and he said, ‘Bear witness for me that I do not declare any of the people of the qiblah to be unbelievers, for all of them point toward one and the same object of worship; all of this is nothing but a difference in wording.’”

I say: This too is my creed. Likewise, our teacher Ibn Taymiyyah, in the final days of his life, used to say, “I do not declare anyone (2) of the ummah to be an unbeliever,” and he would quote:

“The Prophet ﷺ said, ‘No one maintains his ablution except a believer’ (3). Consequently, whoever persists in performing the prayers with ablution is a Muslim.”