Conclusion:
Thus—praise be to Allah—we have found in the Shaykh’s own words an answer to everything his opponents have fabricated about him and a refutation of what they attributed to him. This attests to the breadth of his knowledge and his leadership in scholarship. We do not claim infallibility for him; like other imams, he is sometimes correct and sometimes mistaken.

Imam Ibn Kathir, in his biographical notice of him in al-Bidaya wa’l-Nihaya (14/119), states that a number of the scholars of his era praised him and his learning, such as al-Qadi al-Khubi, Ibn Daqiq al-ʿId, Ibn al-Nahhas, the Hanafi judge and chief judge of Egypt Ibn al-Hariri, Ibn al-Zamlakani, and others. I have found in Ibn al-Zamlakani’s own handwriting the words: “All the conditions for ijtihad were fully met in him, and he had the upper hand in fine composition, eloquent expression, sound arrangement, systematic classification, and devotion.” Ibn Kathir then says: “In sum, he—may Allah have mercy on him—was among the great scholars, one who may err and may be right, yet his mistakes compared with his correct judgments are like a single drop in a vast, deep sea. His errors are also forgiven, as related in Sahih al-Bukhari: ‘When a judge exerts effort and is correct, he has two rewards; and when he exerts effort and is mistaken, he has one reward.’ Therefore, he is rewarded. Imam Malik ibn Anas said: ‘Every statement may be accepted or rejected, except that of the inhabitant of this grave.’” —End 1.

As we mentioned earlier, the writings of this scholar are accessible and available to anyone who wants them. Whoever sincerely seeks the truth, without obstinacy, should read them for himself and not listen to the claims made by his adversaries, the envious, and the misguiding detractors, for justice and fairness dictate that one judge a person on the basis of what he has actually written in his books, not