heretics have seen them? What heretic would have dared show himself before men like these and press his way into their gatherings? How, then, could they fabricate hadiths in their names and slip them into their books?

Tell me, you ignorant man: if the hadith was fabricated by heretics, why do you seek ways to interpret and explain it, as though you were endorsing it and affirming its authenticity? Why did you not say at the outset, “This was fabricated by heretics,” sparing yourself and others the trouble of trying to explain it, rather than alleging in your explanation that the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—entered Paradise, saw a young man among the friends of Allah Most High, and said, “This is my Lord”?

Instead, you have confused yourself and fallen into bewilderment and incoherence, finding no refuge except in these muddled explanations. Yet they will avail you nothing before people of knowledge and discernment. The more you say of this sort, the more you disgrace yourself, for the best defense of falsehood is to abandon it and renounce it.

He said: The opponent also narrated from ‘Abd Allāh ibn Sālih, from