kalām (dialectical theology) and from visiting al-Bāqillānī. When word reached him that a number of his pupils were slipping in to al-Bāqillānī in secret to study kalām, he assumed that I was with them and one of their party. He then related an incident and concluded it by saying:

‘Shaykh Abū Ḥāmid said to me: “My son, it has come to my attention that you frequent this man—meaning al-Bāqillānī. Keep away from him and beware of him, for he is an innovator who calls people to misguidance; otherwise do not attend my circle.”’

I replied, ‘I seek refuge in Allah from what has been alleged and I repent to Him. Bear witness that I shall never go to him (1).’

He (2) also said: I heard the jurist, Imām (3) Abū Manṣūr Saʿd ibn ʿAlī al-ʿAjlī, say: I heard several of the shaykhs and leading scholars in Baghdad—I think Shaykh Abū Isḥāq al-Shīrāzī was one of them—state: ‘Abū Bakr al-Bāqillānī used to leave for the bathhouse veiled, out of fear of Shaykh Abū Ḥāmid al-Isfarāʾīnī (4).’

He (5) went on: A number of reliable men wrote to inform me—among them the judge Abū Manṣūr al-Yaʿqūbī reporting from Imām ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī, who is Shaykh al-Islām al-Anṣārī—that he said: I heard Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Muḥammad (6) ibn al-Ḥusayn, that is al-Sulamī, say: ‘I found Abū Ḥāmid al-Isfarāʾīnī, Abū al-Ṭayyib al-Ṣaʿlūkī, Abū Bakr al-Qaffāl al-Marwazī, and Abū Manṣūr al-Ḥākim all firmly denouncing kalām and those who engage in it.’