on Allah’s oneness, divine decree, and the foundations of religious knowledge as I have. Those who attribute to me anything contrary to what is in my books are liars and evildoers.”

He also related that Ibn Khuzaymah said:

“Some of these ignorant men who have emerged in recent years claim that Allah does not repeat His speech. They do not understand Allah’s Book! Allah has explicitly stated in several passages of the Book that He created Adam and commanded the angels to prostrate before him. He repeated this account in more than one place, repeatedly mentioned His speaking to Moses, mentioned Jesus son of Mary in several places, and praised Himself in several places, saying:

‘All praise is for Allah, who has sent down the Book to His servant’;

and ‘All praise is for Allah, who created the heavens and the earth’—to the end of the verse;

and ‘All praise is for Allah, to whom belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on earth.’

He repeated more than thirty times:

‘Then which of your Lord’s favors will you both deny?’

“I never imagined that a Muslim would suppose that Allah does not say something twice. This is the position of someone who claims that Allah’s speech is created and imagines that one cannot say, ‘Allah created the same thing twice.’”

Al-Hākim said:

I heard Abū Bakr Ahmad ibn Ishāq say:

“When our affair unfolded as it did, some of our opponents—meaning the Muʿtazilah—found an opportunity to advance their doctrine in our presence, while some who shared our views seized the opportunity to make matters worse. Abū ʿAmr al-Hīrī undertook to mediate impartially between the parties.”

He mentioned that they met at his house, and that Abū ʿAlī al-Thaqafī said to the imam:

“What is it in our positions that you object to, O imam, so that we may abandon it?”

He replied:

“Your leaning toward the doctrine of the Kullābiyyah, for Ahmad ibn Hanbal was among the most vehement