“This text is explicit that Jesus—peace be upon him—will rule by our Sacred Law, judging according to the Book and the Sunnah, and by nothing else—not the Gospel, nor Hanafi jurisprudence, nor anything similar.”

By mentioning the Gospel I intended to rebut the Christians who claim that, upon his descent, Jesus will govern not by the Qur’an but by the Gospel. By mentioning Hanafi fiqh I meant to refute certain Hanafi zealots who insist that Jesus—peace be upon him—will judge according to the Hanafi school. With my words “and the like” I wished to pre-empt any partisan Hanafi from imagining that my singling out Hanafi law reflected a bias against it or a preference for another school; thus I said “and the like” to place it on equal footing with all the schools, affirming that Jesus will rely on none of them but on the Book and the Sunnah alone.

Never did it occur to me that these brief lines would be exploited so cheaply, as Abu Ghuddah has done, both previously and later. Earlier, when the first edition of the book was printed, he turned the world upside down by spreading among the people that al-Albani maligns the four madhhabs and that belonging to them is as impermissible as belonging to the Gospel—along with other fabrications he has now put into writing in his “Kalimāt.” Many people questioned me about this rumour, and my constant reply was, “Glory be to You! This is a monstrous slander.” When we learned at the time that Abu Ghuddah was its source, I hurried to compose an addendum in which I refuted and nullified the rumour, pointing out that the one who bore its burden was a certain Hanafi fanatic. In that addendum I clarified this brief comment more or less as the publisher of the second edition has explained in his introduction. I then sent the addendum to the first publisher’s agent, who was overseeing the printing of the book in Beirut, so that he might print the addendum and attach it