with a voice. Whoever reads his lengthy discussion of the question of the Quran’s createdness in his marginalia on “al-Qawāʿid” (pp. 361–379) will see plainly that he is a Jahmī, a follower of Jaʿd. How, then, could the man whose imamate is so palpable and well-known possibly agree with him on his Salafi creed? Turn also to his note on al-Rafʿ wa-l-Takmīl (p. 188), where you will find him endorsing his teacher al-Kawtharī’s attack on the hadith transmitters for declaring that the Quran is the uncreated speech of Allah and for saying that the dispute between them on the one hand and the Hanafis and the Muʿtazilites on the other is merely verbal—“and were it real, the fault would necessarily lie on their side!”

6 – Nor does he affirm that Allah, exalted is He, is above His Throne as befits His majesty; and how could Abu Ghuddah accept any of that when his own teacher al-Kawtharī openly brands it as anthropomorphism and corporealism?!

Indeed, Abu Ghuddah himself hinted at this when he disparaged Imām Ibn al-Qayyim. In his marginal note on “al-Ajwiba al-Fāḍila” (p. 130) he wrote: “Whenever he narrates a hadith that accords with his well-known inclination (!)—meaning corporealism—he becomes excessive in declaring it sound…,” and he repeated the phrase “his inclination” a line later!

7 – He will not permit a Muslim to ask, “Where is Allah?”—the very question the Messenger of Allah ﷺ asked—even though the hadith is authentic in Muslim and elsewhere, because his teacher cast doubt upon it. Otherwise, why did he refuse to answer any of those questions, especially this one, when I said to him explicitly (p. 52): “Do you yourself believe in this hadith and deem permissible the very question the Messenger ﷺ posed?”

Yet, as usual, he did not reply with so much as a single letter. Can any doubt remain after that about his blind partisanship for his school and his turning away from the Book of his Lord and the Sunnah of His Prophet ﷺ?!