A Digression

You mentioned in your letter that you said to the shaykh:

“I would like you to obtain the records for me so that he may examine them. If he has a rebuttal, well and good; otherwise, the entire group is excused.”

There is absolutely no need for this. These records are too insignificant and contemptible for their refutation to require having them before me. I have already demonstrated, on twenty-odd grounds, that this judgment falls outside Islamic law according to the consensus of the Muslims—the four schools of law and all the other leading religious scholars.

I said to the messenger:

“What business do Ibn Makhlūf and others like him have intervening in matters of religious knowledge that others understand better than he does—such as the interpretation of the Quran, the hadiths of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, the statements of the early generations, and the fundamentals of religion, which he does not know? These matters must be referred only to those who understand them. If the sultan or his governing deputy understands them, he stands in this respect like anyone else who understands them; otherwise, they have no authority in these matters, just as requests for fatwas are addressed only to those competent to issue them.”

I also said to him:

“Nothing has ever come from me except answers to questions and fatwas for those seeking them. I have never written to anyone or spoken to him about any of this. Rather, a man comes to me seeking guidance and a fatwa based on what Allah revealed to His Messenger. He asks me, despite the distance, burning with longing for guidance