Of all the scholarship, sound criticism, compelling argumentation, and other truths set out in the Introduction, Abū Ghuddah did not so much as utter a word—neither to contest them nor to acknowledge them—forgetting that confessing the truth and retracting error is a virtue. This brings to mind the Syrian proverb, “He is like the Sufi: he neither objects nor fulfils,” as well as the ancient Arab saying, “The scorpion stings and then shrieks!” and, “If the scorpion comes back, we shall come back at it, and the sandal will be ready for it!”

Fourth – A fresh slander and an ignoble bid to stir up hostility:

Abū Ghuddah was not content with all those fabrications and thrusts he directed at me in his unfair report—thrusts I refuted in the Introduction with an answer he has been utterly unable to rebut, as you have seen in this reply to his “statements.” Instead, he has returned with new calumny and rancor, reminding me of the proverb: “It was said to the wretch, ‘Come to happiness,’ and he replied, ‘What I have is enough for me!’”

After failing to rouse the officials there against al-Albānī’s annotations and grading of the commentary on al-Ṭaḥāwiyyah, he began rummaging through al-Albānī’s other books, hoping to catch a single slip to which he could cling—like a drowning man clutching even at the moon’s rays—so that he might build upon it palaces and lofty towers. In some of those works he found a few lines reminding those officials of certain objectionable practices occurring in Madinah, urging them to address the matter before the tear widens beyond the mender’s reach. Abū Ghuddah took this as censure and an attack upon the scholars and officials there, using it to ingratiate himself with them by sheer hypocrisy, turning facts on their head: “Allah bears witness that the hypocrites are indeed liars” (Q 63:1). And why not, when every Muslim knows the Prophet’s ﷺ saying, “Religion is sincere counsel to Allah and to His Book…”