And this mere supposition of his is enough to condemn him for ignorance and for speaking at random. It brings to mind Allah’s words about the disbelievers who doubted the Resurrection: “We do not know what the Hour is; we do nothing but conjecture, and we are by no means certain” (Q 45:32).
As for the reports concerning the night of mid-Shaʿbān, if what he means—judging from his discussion with that scholar—is the ḥadīth that encourages spending its night in prayer and fasting its day, then there is only a single report on the matter, and its chain of transmission is extremely weak—indeed, in my view it is fabricated. This is clarified in Volume Five of my Series of Weak Ḥadīths, no. 2132, which, Allah willing, will soon be in print.
If, however, he intends the ḥadīth that all people are granted forgiveness on that night except those specifically excluded, that too is but a lone report. It is transmitted through several routes from a group of Companions and in various wordings, yet every chain suffers from some defect. For that reason most scholars, as Ibn Rajab stated, graded them weak. Ibn Ḥibbān declared one of the chains sound, but it contains a break in transmission. By gathering the routes together it can be judged authentic, or at least ḥasan, and for that reason I recorded it in al-Silsila al-Ṣaḥīḥa, 1144, and allotted it a place in my forthcoming book Ṣaḥīḥ Mawārid al-Ḍamʾān …/ 1980, now in press.
How can this be compared with the many ḥadīths that forbid singing and music, whose chains are numerous and, in many cases, sound, and whose wordings unanimously declare them prohibited—as will be shown shortly? Where do those reports stand in relation to these, O reckless man? I beg the reader’s pardon for employing such a description, for although it is warranted, it is far milder than the insults you have hurled at our predecessors, our scholars, and the students of the Sunnah who strive to uphold it. Were any of them to repay you in kind, he would have to be a foul-mouthed writer like yourself!
Al-Ghazālī then cited the Gulf scholar’s reply to him and said about him: