of that tampering than his anger blazed against them….” I can only imagine that Ustadh Fahr’s anger really did flare up—this time against Abu Ghuddah—for having pinned such a baseless charge on him! Yet Abu Ghuddah did not stop at that lie; he reinforced it when he wrote (p. 6):

“They complied with the author’s request and appended to the aforesaid book ….”

By Allah, we had no knowledge whatsoever of the alleged addition, nor of the supposed “compliance,” until we read Abu Ghuddah’s own words. Is it not our right, then, to say, “Why …?”

In the same vein he wrote, regarding the other books mentioned earlier, “they transmitted,” “they said,” and similar expressions that do not correspond to reality—examples of which will follow. The only person who actually transmitted or said anything is the author himself; why involve the others—one of whom has already passed on to Allah’s mercy and knows nothing of the later dispute that arose between fellow Sunnis like himself and the people of whims and innovations such as al-Kawthari’s disciple? Nor do the remaining individuals have any idea what the author later composed, especially once his book had already spread! How great is Abu Ghuddah’s heedlessness—indeed, how blatant his falsehood!

For all these reasons I have decided to confine my reply to Abu Ghuddah alone, limiting it to the injustice, oppression, and slander he has directed at me, and leaving it to others—should they wish—to answer him, so that this rejoinder does not become unduly long; after all, the people of the house know best what is in it. Allah says: “Has he not been informed of what is in the scriptures of Moses, and of Abraham who fulfilled his duty?—that no bearer shall bear another’s burden, and that each person will have only what he strives for” (53:36-39).

So I say, seeking help from Allah alone:

First—One of Abu Ghuddah’s peculiarities is that, when he attempted to refute me for what I had rightly said about him in the introduction to the commentary on al-Tahawiyyah, “A Refutation of