their competing interpretations—at which point personal whim, entrenched habit, and the urge to satisfy the rabble and the lay public intrude, and that becomes the criterion, whether they like it or not.

So if Abū Ghuddah, by the “affiliation” mentioned in his words, intends the mere, unrestricted affiliation that is a means rather than an end—and that is what his unqualified phrasing suggests—then he has slandered us, and Allah is his reckoner. But if he intends the sort of affiliation practiced by the vast majority of blind imitators—something I doubt he would dare admit openly—then we say bluntly that we regard it as a stigma and a defect. Moreover, we add that this is precisely what we have learned from the imams who forbade taqlīd (blind imitation) and made adherence to the Book and the Sunnah obligatory. I collected many of their explicit statements in the Introduction just cited, among them the saying of one of them: “No one resorts to blind imitation except a partisan or a fool.” (1)

His further claim that “he has described me time after time as a Ḥanafī, in a tone of reproach and insult” is likewise a fabrication and a calumny. We do not reproach anyone merely because he affiliates himself with Abū Ḥanīfah or any of the other imams—may Allah be pleased with them all. Our reproach is directed only at one who is fanatically attached to his school, giving it precedence over the Book of his Lord and the Sunnah of His Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. Abū Ghuddah is unmistakably of that type: fiercely partisan toward his school and proud of it, for he thanks Allah for