I say: This position, which al-Ash'arī stated and defended in al-Ibāna (The Elucidation), he also recorded in his large Book of Doctrines—which contains the doctrines of Muslims and non-Muslim groups—and in Maqālāt al-Islāmiyyīn wa-Ikhtilāf al-Musallīn (The Doctrines of the Muslims and the Differences among Those Who Pray), as the general position of the people of hadith and the Sunnah. He said, after mentioning the doctrines of the Shī'a, then the Kharijites, then the Mu'tazila, then the corporealists, then the Jahmiyya, then the Dirāriyya, then