They lifted the veil from the hideousness of what they had been concealing, and their disbelief and heresy became apparent to both the elite and the common folk.1

Abu Muhammad, Muwaffaq al-Din Ibn Qudamah al-Maqdisi—may Allah have mercy on him—played a praiseworthy role in refuting this innovation and exposing its futility. He produced several works on the subject, including:

1. al-Burhān fī Bayān al-Qurʾān (The Proof in Clarifying the Qur’an);
2. al-Ṣirāṭ al-Mustaqīm fī Ithbāt al-Ḥarf al-Qadīm (The Straight Path in Affirming the Eternal Letter);
3. Ḥikāyat al-Munāẓarah fī al-Qurʾān al-Karīm (An Account of the Debate Concerning the Noble Qur’an);
4. the fatwa presently before us.

In all these writings he establishes the invalidity of the Ashʿari position on this issue.

I have chosen to publish this fatwa for several reasons:
First, because of the importance of its subject;
Second, because of the eminence of its author, one of the great imams;
Third, so that it may complete what has already been published from those other works that address the same topic.