contradictions and incoherence in their discourse. Hence they testify to their own bewilderment and abandon their beliefs for the faith of old women. No one is known to hold this view without being attested to be aberrant, in that he denies some self-evident rational truths. This is evident in debates with some of them. Not to mention that everyone who holds such a view has expressed some position concerning Islam for which he has been accused of apostasy, hypocrisy, ignorance, or blind imitation—even though they may have repented of it. This much is well known among those versed in rational inquiry.

Consider, in this connection, what was stated by Abū Muhammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Saʿīd ibn Kullāb, the leading theologian among those who affirm the divine attributes. His path was followed, and his example taken, by Abū al-Hasan al-Ashʿarī, Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Qalānisī, and other theologians who affirm the divine attributes. The master Abū Bakr ibn Fūrak recorded this in his book entitled The Doctrinal Views of the Shaykh and Imam Abū Muhammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Saʿīd.

In that book, after an introduction whose substance is praise of Allah for the emergence, among His devoted servants, of those who explain the truth through its proofs and refute the specious arguments of falsehood, he said:

“Then he, may Allah exalt his standing”—meaning Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-ʿAsamī, whom he praised lavishly—“wished—owing to his dedication to making the word of those who uphold the truth prevail and spreading the foundations of the religion of the devout, by adhering to the manifest Sunnah and the prevailing community, through action