and more balanced than al-Ash‘arī’s position, since he regarded the servant as a genuine agent and affirmed two kinds of ability to act, along with other matters affirmed by the leading jurists and scholars of hadith, as discussed in the relevant place.

[Returning to Ibn ‘Asākir’s remarks and Ibn Taymiyyah’s commentary on them]

Ibn ‘Asākir said:

“As for discourse that accords with the Book and the Sunnah and clarifies the truths of the fundamental principles in times of turmoil, it is praiseworthy in the eyes of the scholars.”

It is reported from Ibn Khuzaymah:

“I heard al-Rabī‘ say that when al-Shāfi‘ī spoke with Hafs al-Fard, Hafs said, ‘The Quran is created.’ Al-Shāfi‘ī said to him, ‘You have disbelieved in Allah, the Magnificent.’”

It is also related from al-Rabī‘ that he said:

“I was present with al-Shāfi‘ī—or Abū Shu‘ayb related it to me. I do know that ‘Abd Allāh ibn ‘Abd al-Hakam, Yūsuf ibn ‘Amr ibn Yazīd, and Hafs al-Fard were present. Al-Shāfi‘ī used to call him al-Munfarid (the solitary one). Hafs asked ‘Abd Allāh ibn ‘Abd al-Hakam, saying, ‘What do you say