these records. There is also al-Mālikī’s statement: ‘I have never heard that he was asked to repent, barred from issuing fatwas, removed from his teaching chair, or subjected to this or that. Nor has anything that impugns his religious integrity ever been established against him before me.’ The other scholars and judges have likewise spoken in my absence.

As for the testimonies, they contain matters of great gravity, so consider them carefully. All the more so since there are grounds for disqualifying the witnesses named in the record—grounds that can be stated when necessary.”