So I answered him in five pages ⦗21–26⦘, explaining the scholars’ technical use of the phrase “I do not know it,” and quoting what Abu Ghuddah himself had cited in the preface to one of his own publications. On that basis I charged him with feigned—and genuine—ignorance, showing that his objection has nothing to do with the convention I adopted from the hadith specialists. Rather, he uttered it only to soothe the rage within his breast and to reveal to people the hidden malice and bitter envy he nurses, his language so coarse that he no longer knows what escapes his lips. We ask Allah for well-being.
Abu Ghuddah, however, offered absolutely no reply to this except to allege that I had accused him (though, to mislead the readers, he phrases it “they accused me!”) of ignorance and deliberate affectation. O Abu Ghuddah, if you are truthful in this claim, why did you not clarify the connection between your words, “Does he therefore not know good from evil?” and my statement, “I do not know it,” thereby proving that you are neither ignorant nor pretending ignorance—while you yourself declare, “My conduct is plain and my character well known, praise be to Allah”? Indeed, your conduct is exposed and your character well known; and praise belongs to Allah, who alone is praised even for what is displeasing.
3–4. He also registered two slips against me. Concerning the first—which he stated openly—he was correct; yet in presenting it he practiced a devious form of concealment, twisting certain facts, as I showed ⦗29–30⦘. The charge of deception and distortion that I leveled at him therefore rebounds upon him, for he did not produce a single word to clear himself, beyond declaring of that instance and its like: “Sheer fabrication!”
The other slip he merely hinted at without stating explicitly: namely, that I had declared the commentator—may Allah have mercy on him—mistaken for attributing a hadith to the Sahih when it is not found there. Abu Ghuddah simply quoted my words on the matter and said nothing more, his only purpose being to make the readers imagine that I myself was mistaken in pointing out the commentator’s error.