—namely the original notebooks (uṣūl) of Ibn Waḍḍāḥ that he had heard directly from him. These were then read aloud in his presence, and a large circle of scholars flocked to transmit from him.
Those who studied under him include: Abū Muḥammad al-Qalaʿī, Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥīm Aḥmad ibn al-ʿAjūz, Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Shaykh, Abū ʿUmar Aḥmad ibn al-Jasūr, and Aḥmad ibn al-Qāsim al-Tāhartī. The two ḥadith masters Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr and Ibn Ḥazm later carried his narrations through his pupils. He did, however, slip on the question of qadar (divine decree)—we ask Allah for safety.
Abū al-Walīd Ibn al-Faradī said, “He was abandoned because he advocated the innovation of Wahb ibn Masarra.” (1)
Among the statements reported from Ibn Masarra is his claim: “The Garden from which our father Adam was expelled is not the Garden of Everlasting Life; rather, it was a garden on earth.” Such contrived sophistry and blameworthy over-subtlety is rejected. (2)
(1) See Tarikh ulama al-Andalus, vol. 2, pp. 81–82.
(2) I am at a loss to understand how Imam al-Dhahabi could describe this view as blameworthy affectation and undue sophistication, since it is the position of Imam Abu Hanifa and other leading investigators among Ahl al-Sunnah. Imam Abu Mansur al-Maturidi states in his Qur’anic commentary al-Tawilat: We hold that this janna (garden) was merely one of the gardens of the earth, a grove in which Adam and his wife enjoyed bliss; we are not required to identify it precisely or to seek its location. This is the stance of the early generations (salaf), and abundant evidence supports it:
1. Allah created Adam on earth so that he and his descendants might act as vice-gerents (khulafa) there; that viceregency was intended from the outset and cannot be treated as an incidental punishment.
2. Through all His messengers Allah has proclaimed that entry into the jannat al-khuld (eternal garden) will occur only on the Day of Resurrection, a time that has not yet come.
3. In the Qur’an Allah characterises the eternal garden with fixed attributes; it is inconceivable that He describe something in a certain way and that its reality be otherwise. He calls it the “abode of permanence,” meaning that whoever enters it remains there, yet Adam did not remain in the garden he entered. He also names it the “garden of eternity,” whereas Adam was not eternal therein. Moreover, it is an abode of reward and recompense, not of obligation, command, and prohibition, and it is a realm of safety.