3333—that it is likewise the position of the three leading Imams and one of the two reports from Aḥmad. Any single statement from these great scholars would be sufficient to refute the Shaykh’s claim of consensus; how much more so when they are taken together? It is authentically related that Imām Aḥmad said, “Whoever alleges consensus is a liar. How does he know? Perhaps the people have differed.” If this was his verdict on someone who is merely unaware of a contrary view, what, one wonders, would he have said about a man who knows the disagreement full well and yet still claims consensus?

If someone were to ask, “How can you assert that the Shaykh is aware of this disagreement and yet willfully ignores it?”

I reply: I learned that from his own book, the very work I have now refuted a second time.

First, on p. 157 he cites the ḥadith master Ibn Kathīr as saying that the majority understood the verse about adornment to refer to the face and hands, and he repeats the same on p. 234.

Second, in several places of my book I have named scholars who reject his alleged consensus—such as Ibn Jarīr, Ibn Rushd, and al-Nawawī. Among them, too, is Ibn Baṭṭāl (1), from whom I quote later in the book ⦗63⦘ that he took the ḥadith of the Khathʿamī woman as evidence that a woman’s covering of her face is not obligatory.