the Sultan’s deputy, who said: ‘Now write out a creed for us in your own hand.’”

I replied: “Convey my greetings to the Sultan’s deputy and tell him: ‘If I were to write something now, someone would say that I had added or omitted something, or changed the creed. Likewise, in Damascus, when they requested the creed, the accusations against me concerned only something already written.’”

I said: “This is the creed that was read in Syria at the three sessions. Your deputy sent it to you by courier, and you have all the documents. Then, when the second letter arrived, he again sent you, through al-‘Umarī, the statements of the judges and scholars, the official record, and the book by al-Bukhārī that al-Mizzī had read. The creed is not something I devise myself, such that I would have a different creed every day. It is that very same creed, and the very same copy. Examine it.”

He went away, then returned and asked me to write anything at all in my own hand. I asked: “What should I write?” He replied: “Something about pardoning people and not taking action against anyone.”

I said: “Yes, I am willing to do that. My aim is not to harm anyone, take revenge on him, or hold him to account. I forgive those who have wronged me.” I intended to write this, but then said: “It is not customary to put such a thing in writing, for a person’s relinquishing his own claim does not require this. You know that, when matters unfolded in this way, some people nearly turned against the shaykh. They thought that he had endorsed this document and that it contradicted what he had been saying and conveying in his messages. My brother and I therefore began countering this, saying: ‘This is Ibn Makhlūf’s doing.’ I have personally ascertained that it was indeed Ibn Makhlūf’s doing. The shaykh knows that a case like this, which has become widely known and publicized, cannot be resolved