do not know what he meant. Indeed, most of these people do not understand the meanings of the Quran, let alone hadith. Many of them have not even memorized the Quran at all.

How, then, can someone who has neither memorized the Quran nor understood its meanings, and who knows neither hadith nor its meanings, know the truths learned from the Messenger? Anyone who reflects rationally will find that, among all groups, the closer a group is to Allah and His Messenger, the greater its knowledge of, and attention to, the Quran and hadith. The further it is from Allah and His Messenger, the further removed it is from both. You will even find among their leading scholars those who cannot distinguish the Quran from other speech. A verse may be mentioned in someone’s presence, and he will say, “We do not accept that this hadith is authentic.” Or he may say, “Because he—peace be upon him—said such-and-such,” when the words are actually a verse from the Book of Allah. Astonishing examples of this have reached us, and those that have not reached us are more numerous still.

A trustworthy man told me that one of the leading speculative theologians, a man called Shams al-Dīn al-Asbahānī, the teacher of al-Aykī, took charge of the school at the shrine of al-Husayn in Egypt. They handed him a volume from a multivolume Quran, and he read, “In the name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful,” pronouncing the letters alif, lām, mīm and sād as a word, until someone told him, “Alif, lām, mīm, sād.”

Reflect on this fair judgment, so that it becomes clear to you that those who disparage the people of hadith and turn away from their way are undoubtedly ignorant heretics and hypocrites. Thus, when Imam Ahmad learned that the people of hadith had been mentioned in Mecca in the presence of Ibn Abī Qutayla, who said, “They are evil people,” Imam Ahmad stood up, shaking out his garment and saying, “A heretic! A heretic! A heretic!” Then he entered his house, for he understood what the man was driving at.