concerning (1) the study of fiqh (jurisprudence) and the transmitted reports, matters for which the people would stand by you, yet you abandon them?’ He replied, ‘In that field we are under suspicion.’ When Bishr left, al-Shāfiʿī said, ‘He will never succeed.’

Shaykh al-Islām also narrated (2) from al-Muzanī and from al-Rabīʿ: al-Muzanī said, ‘I heard al-Shāfiʿī say to al-Rabīʿ, “O Rabīʿ, accept from me three counsels: do not (3) delve into the affairs of the Companions of the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—for your adversary then will be the Prophet himself on the Day of Resurrection; do not occupy yourself with kalām (speculative theology), for I have examined the people of kalām and found that it leads to taʿṭīl (the denial of the divine attributes); and,” al-Muzanī added, “do not busy yourself with astrology, for it drags one toward taʿṭīl.”’

The tawḥīd (monotheism) touted by these people is taken from the teaching of Bishr al-Marīsī and his circle, and the “tawḥīd” they expound is in fact taʿṭīl itself, for it can only (4) serve as a description of non-existence.

Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī likewise said: ‘I saw in the handwriting of Abū ʿAmr ibn Maṭar that he wrote: Ibn Khuzaymah was asked about discourse on the divine names and attributes, and he replied, “It is an innovation they have devised. The leading scholars of the Muslims, the masters of the legal schools and the Imams of the religion—such as Mālik, Sufyān, al-Awzāʿī, al-Shāfiʿī, Aḥmad, Isḥāq, Yaḥyā ibn Yaḥyā, Ibn al-Mubārak, Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā, Abū (6) Ḥanīfah, Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan, and Abū Yūsuf—never spoke about that. Rather, they used to forbid delving…”’