that the isnād is part of the religion, and for that reason I proposed that he add to the new title he had coined for the introduction—“Principles in the Sciences of Ḥadīth”—the qualifier, “according to the Hanafi school”!
14 – I took issue with one of his teachers, the author of that very introduction, for saying: “The statement of the ḥadīth authorities—‘this report is not established’ or ‘it is munkar’—is not to be accepted unless they specify the defect,” even though those same men had previously maintained that the ḥadīth cited by a mujtahid is accepted solely because he has used it as proof!
15 – I demonstrated their partisanship toward their Imām by his remark: “The teachers of our Greatest Imām, Abū Ḥanīfah, are all trustworthy,” whereas the facts belie this—as I showed there—by listing some of his teachers, among them Jābir al-Juʿfī, about whom Abū Ḥanīfah himself said, “I have never seen anyone more mendacious than he!”
16 – We exposed the vehemence of his hostility toward Ahl al-Sunnah and the people of ḥadīth, and how, from the pulpit of his own mosque, he maligned the people of pure monotheism—specifically those known in his country as Salafis, and more generally the monotheists of Saudi Arabia and elsewhere—branding them “Wahhābīs,” openly declaring them misguided, and even saying: “These Wahhābīs feel repelled and nauseated whenever the name of Muhammad ﷺ is mentioned.”
17 – We further proved that when he cites, in his annotations, the two shaykhs Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn al-Qayyim, he does so merely to feign affection for them—his attitude being, as the poet says, “Win them over so long as you dwell among them.” He beautifies the books he prints with quotations from Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn al-Qayyim—may Allah have mercy on them—while we voiced our doubts about the purpose he seeks thereby; at the very same time he quotes copiously from their arch-enemy, the so-called Zāhid al-Kawtharī, extolling him so extravagantly that he even ascribes himself to him, styling himself “Shaykh ʿAbd al-Fattāḥ Abū Ghuddah al-Ḥanafī al-Kawtharī,”