such as his statement, “He draws near to His creation however He wills.” Al-Ash‘arī then learned the remainder of this from Imam Ahmad when he arrived in Baghdad, although Zakariyyā ibn Yahyā and his contemporaries were also followers of Ahmad in this regard.

Abū ‘Abd Allāh ibn Battah, in his al-Ibānah al-Kubrā (The Greater Exposition), related from Zakariyyā ibn Yahyā al-Sājī the main tenets of the adherents of the Sunnah. These resemble what al-Ash‘arī recorded in his Maqālāt (Doctrinal Views). Al-Sājī was al-Ash‘arī’s teacher, from whom he learned jurisprudence, hadith and the Sunnah, as his followers also mentioned.

‘Abd Allāh narrated from ‘Abbād ibn al-‘Awwām al-Wāsitī, who said: