and Qāḍī Abū Yaʿlā (d. 458 AH) authored several works refuting the Ashʿarīs, the Karrāmīs, and the Bāṭinīs. (1)
This is but a fraction of the many writings produced by the scholars of Islam against the people of innovation and misguided passions in that period.
The task of writing and confronting continued at the hands of the leading imams, among them Taqī al-Dīn Abū al-ʿAbbās Ibn Taymiyyah. He—may Allah have mercy on him—stood forth to champion the creed of the early generations, refuting the Ashʿarīs, the Rāfiḍīs, the Ṣūfīs, and others who had strayed from the straight path. He composed numerous books and answered a great many questions sent to him from various regions.
Among his works written specifically against the Ashʿarīs—and more generally against the sects of innovation—is the very book before us. In it he—may Allah have mercy on him—exposes the error of that group regarding a momentous issue: the Speech of Allah, Exalted be He. He examines their claim that it is a single, self-subsisting meaning independent of His will and power; that if articulated in Arabic it is the Qur’an, if in Syriac it is the Gospel, and if in Hebrew it is the Torah. The Shaykh—may Allah have mercy on him—shows that this view is peculiar to al-Ashʿarī and Ibn Kullāb, and that others had discussed it before them. (2)
From my close engagement with this book, I can say that it is the only one (3) among the Shaykh’s works that deals exclusively with the Ashʿarīs (4) on this particular question in a thorough and objective manner.