and refuting the proponents of falsehood, especially concerning the Quran, on which he offered clear and lucid explanations.

I began, before anything else, with the broad outlines of the doctrines that our shaykh, “Abū al-Hasan ʿAlī ibn Ismāʿīl al-Ashʿarī”—may Allah be pleased with him—set forth in his book collecting the views of those who face the qiblah. My purpose was to demonstrate that the approach of our shaykhs—may Allah be pleased with them—convincingly sets out the proofs of Allah’s true religion, exposes the falsehoods of the innovators, and lays bare the specious arguments of those who deviate from the truth. The foundations of their religion and their methods support one another rather than conflict. Nor do they disagree in ways that lead them to disavow one another or declare one another unbelievers or evildoers.

Most such differences amount merely to qualifying an unrestricted statement to remove ambiguity and confusion, or removing a restriction to dispel every doubt and avert suspicion. Most ultimately concern differences of expression. Whatever difficulty a statement presents in meaning upon close examination, its detailed explanation ultimately comes back to the approach of the other scholar.

In this book, I have not undertaken to explain how these positions can be reconciled in meaning, or to show that [they] amount to differences of expression: one scholar uses an expression that others disallow, without thereby overturning a foundational principle or undoing an established tenet in a manner warranting a judgment of misguidance and disavowal. This is the strongest testimony that they are the ones protected from error, and that they are the group which the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—foretold would continue to prevail with the truth,