It is said: From where, exactly, in His pre-eternity can you deduce such a conclusion, when you have never even set that out? In Talkhīs al-Talbīs (1) we have examined every argument they present in this chapter and have shown—clear to anyone with the least discernment—that all of their proofs collapse. We also analysed their well-known method for proving the origination of bodies, demonstrating the unanimous position of the Salaf on its futility, for it is likewise unsound in rational terms.
Fifty-fourth point:
Their argument for denying that Allah speaks with letters is the direct opposite (2) of the evidence they use to assert this so-called kalām nafsānī (self-subsisting, inward speech). They are therefore forced into one of two choices: either to repudiate the kalām nafsānī they have affirmed, or to acknowledge the speech with letters that they have rejected.
Al-Qāḍī Abū Bakr Ibn al-Bāqillānī said (3) in his book al-Naqd (4), which is in
(1) This is the book Nakd Taʾsīs al-Jahmiyya (Refutation of the Foundations of the Jahmiyya), also titled Bayān Talbīs al-Jahmiyya fī Taʾsīs Bidʿihim al-Kalāmiyya (Clarifying the Jahmiyya’s Deception in Establishing Their Kalam Innovations). Al-Bazzār records it under the same title cited here by the Shaykh (may Allah have mercy on him), introducing some of his works: “Among them is a twelve-volume corpus, such as Talkhīṣ al-Talbīs ʿalā Asās al-Taqdīs (Summary of the Deception on the Basis of Sanctification).” See: Al-Aʿlām al-ʿUliyā fī Manāqib Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyya, al-Bazzār, p. 26. Cf. Bayān Talbīs al-Jahmiyya fī Taʾsīs Bidʿihim al-Kalāmiyya, ed. Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Qāsim, vol. 1, p. 24 (Introduction), 4th ed. It was noted on p. 389 that the Shaykh himself referred to this work and its title, stating: “As we have clarified in Bayān Talbīs al-Jahmiyya fī Taʾsīs Bidʿihim al-Kalāmiyya, also called Talkhīṣ al-Talbīs min Kitāb al-Taʾsīs.”
(2) In some manuscripts and printed editions the title appears as “Yunqid.”
(3) In the margin of the manuscript are the remarks of Qāḍī Abū Bakr ibn al-Bāqlānī on al-kalām al-nafsī (the discourse on the self).
(4) Abū Bakr al-Bāqlānī: His biography and his work al-Naqd, to which the Shaykh (may Allah have mercy on him) referred, were not found in the sources consulted. Neither Brockelmann nor Székely list it among al-Bāqlānī’s writings. They only mention a manuscript entitled Manaqib al-Aʾimmah wa Naqd al-Maṭāʿin ʿan Salaf al-Ummah, held at the al-Zāhiriyya Library in Damascus, which is likely the same work.