why they had been summoned for this appointed meeting. This was on Monday, the eighth of the blessed month of Rajab, 705 AH. He said to me:

“This session has been convened concerning you. The Sultan’s decree has arrived, instructing me to question you about your creed and the writings you have sent to Egypt, through which you call people to that creed.”

I believe he also said:

“And to assemble the judges and jurists so that you may discuss these matters together.”

I replied:

“As for creed, it is not to be taken from me, nor from anyone greater than I. Rather, it is to be taken from Allah and His Messenger, and from that upon which the early generations of the Muslim community agreed. Whatever is in the Quran must be believed, as must whatever is established in authentic hadith, such as those in the Sahīh collections of al-Bukhārī and Muslim.

“As for the writings, I have never, on my own initiative, written to anyone inviting him to any of these matters. Rather, I have written answers to questions put to me by people from Egypt and elsewhere.”

I had been told that a letter had been forged in my name to the emir Rukn al-Dīn al-Jāshankīr, the Sultan’s ustādh dār, containing a distorted creed. I did not know its exact nature, but I knew that it was fabricated. People would come to me from Egypt and elsewhere to ask about matters of creed and other subjects, and I would answer them on the basis of the Quran, the Sunnah, and what the early generations of the Muslim community followed.