and this wording is, at the very least, of that standing. Furthermore, it is established that the Companions expressed its meaning, as in Ibn ‘Abbās’s statement: “You target one of My creatures, who is in My image.” When a disconnected report and a Companion’s statement corroborate one another, the report is accepted as evidence even by those who do not otherwise accept disconnected reports, such as al-Shāfi‘ī and others.

Moreover, the Companions’ statements to this effect, and the Successors’ transmission of the same from them, establish that this wording was freely used among the leading scholars and was not rejected by them. Knowledge of this, furthermore, is not acquired through personal reasoning; it can only be stated on the authority of revelation. Nor could Ibn ‘Abbās have relied on reports from the People of the Book, since he himself was among those who forbade us to question them, and the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, forbade us to affirm or deny their accounts. It is therefore clear that Ibn ‘Abbās said this only on the authority of instruction from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. For in the Sahīh of