Then Abu al-Qāsim Ibn ʿAsākir (1)—may Allah have mercy on him—said:

“Reflect, may Allah have mercy on you, upon this creed—how clear and manifest it is. Acknowledge the merit of the learned Imām who has explained and clarified it, and note the ease of his wording—how eloquent and unmistakable it is.

Be among those of whom Allah says:

‘Those who listen to the speech and follow the best of it.’ (2)

Recognize the excellence of Abū al-Ḥasan and appreciate his fairness; listen to the way he extols Aḥmad and admits his superiority, so that you may know that the two of them were in full agreement on creed and that they did not differ in the fundamentals of the religion or the doctrine of the Sunnah.

From earliest times, the Ḥanbalis of Baghdad, throughout the ages, have always sought support (3) from the Ashʿarīs against the people of innovation, for the Ashʿarīs are the theologians among the affirmers. Whenever one of the Ḥanbalis (4) undertook to refute an innovator, he did so in the idiom of the Ashʿarīs, and whenever one of them wished to master a question in the foundational sciences, he learned it from them. They remained upon that until disagreement arose in the time of Abū Naṣr al-Qushayrī and during the vizierate of Niẓām, and mutual estrangement appeared among them because of Niẓām’s deviation (5).

In sum, there has always been among the Ḥanbalis a faction that goes to excess in championing the Sunnah and meddles in what does not concern it, out of a desire to make a stir (6) during times of turmoil. Yet no blame (7) attaches to Aḥmad—may Allah have mercy on him—for their deeds, nor is their view shared by all of them. For this reason Abū Ḥafṣ Ibn Shāhīn (8)—a contemporary of al-Dāraqutnī—said