Thus, on that occasion I spoke with caution and deliberation, waiting to see how Abū Ghuddah would answer what I had presented as conclusive proof. I then cited his words from his unjust preface to the commentary on al-Ṭaḥāwiyyah: “It is to be relied upon … backed by a well-attested and widely recognised authority.”

Because I knew Abū Ghuddah to be an ardent Ḥanafī—and the Ḥanafīs are Māturīdīs—while the commentator refutes them at many points, especially regarding the divine attribute of Speech, it seemed to me that Abū Ghuddah was praising a work whose positions he did not actually hold, for reasons I explained there. I therefore followed his quotation with the remark:

“I said: If Abū Ghuddah truly believes in this palpable, well-known authority, I shall choose for him seven issues taken from that Imām’s own words. Should he respond to them in a way that agrees with the famous Imām’s position, and do so with a sincere heart, that is what we hope for, and I shall apologise to him for having misjudged him. But if the opposite proves true—alas—it will only confirm the charge of calculated accommodation that I levelled against him.”

I then set out the seven issues, adding brief comments and indicating how his teacher al-Kawtharī opposed them. They are:

1. The proponents of the censured kalām (speculative theology) categorically deny that temporal occurrences (ḥawādith) can subsist in God.

2. The Qur’an is the Speech of God: it issued from Him as utterance, without modality; He revealed it to His Messenger as revelation; the believers affirmed it as absolute truth and were certain that God’s Speech in reality is not created like the speech of human beings. (1)

3. He, Exalted is He, has no need of the Throne or of anything beneath it; He encompasses everything and is above it.