that Ahmad interpreted only three hadiths. This misrepresents Ahmad. The matter has been discussed at length elsewhere, where the correct and incorrect aspects of this statement and its associated claims have been clarified, both in what is reported and in how it is understood.

Had Abū Hāmid confined himself to the statements of the imams that he quoted from Ibn ‘Abd al-Barr’s book, none of these errors would have occurred. Ibn ‘Abd al-Barr and others like him are more knowledgeable about transmitted reports than these men. But perhaps he took this from the words of Abū Tālib or someone else.

Similar to this is what Abū al-Ma‘ālī mentioned in his work on legal theory entitled al-Burhān (The Demonstration), when discussing the various positions on rational and legal inference,