– It should also be noted that, in the course of the work, Imam Ibn al-Qayyim appears to have thought of appending yet another chapter at its close, after these twenty-four chapters. For he says (p. 472): “We shall devote separate discussion to this in an independent chapter once we have smashed the four idols they set up to undermine the strongholds of the religion. Therein we shall clarify the meaning of the muḥkam (definitive text) in its proper sense, and demonstrate that the āyāt al-ṣifāt—the verses dealing with the divine attributes—are muḥkam, for they are among the clearest and most decisive passages of the Book; indeed, the certitude they convey exceeds that of anything else, by Allah’s help and His enabling grace.”

This chapter is not mentioned at the end of al-Mawṣilī’s Mukhtaṣar al-Ṣawāʿiq, so Allah alone knows whether Ibn al-Qayyim ever wrote it.