just as, among the Sufi shaykhs who lived in Abū al-Qāsim’s time, none was more accomplished in this field than Shaykh al-Islām Abū Ismā‘īl ‘Abd Allāh ibn Muhammad al-Ansārī al-Harawī, especially in his knowledge of their accounts, sayings, and spiritual path. In these and related matters, he was among the most knowledgeable of men, and he was a leading authority in hadith, Quranic exegesis, and other disciplines.

Nevertheless, both Shaykh Abū ‘Abd al-Rahmān and Shaykh al-Islām each authored a well-known work condemning the method of speculative theology, which encompasses much of what Abū al-Qāsim mentioned in the way of proofs and questions.

Shaykh al-Islām even stated in his book: “I heard Ahmad ibn Abī Nasr say, ‘We saw Muhammad ibn al-Husayn al-Sulamī curse the Kullābiyyah.’”

Muhammad ibn al-Husayn al-Sulamī is Shaykh Abū ‘Abd al-Rahmān,