Abū Thawr. For this reason, the consensus he reported was only against the position of the Karrāmiyyah. Then, exercising his customary caution in his wording, he did not categorically deny that any disagreement existed, but said: “I do not think anyone says this.”
This appears in his letter to Abū ʿAbd al-Rahīm al-Jūzajānī, which al-Khallāl recorded in his Book of the Sunnah—the most comprehensive compilation of Ahmad’s statements on the foundations of religion, although he made additional statements not included in it. Likewise, al-Khallāl’s book on knowledge is the most comprehensive compilation of Ahmad’s statements on the principles of jurisprudence.
Al-Marwadhī said: “I saw Abū ʿAbd al-Rahīm al-Jūzajānī with Abū ʿAbd Allāh. Abū ʿAbd Allāh had previously mentioned him, saying, ‘His father was a Murjiʾī,’ or he said, ‘an adherent of juristic opinion.’ As for Abū ʿAbd al-Rahīm himself, he praised him. He had written to Abū ʿAbd Allāh from Khurāsān, asking him about faith.”
He recorded the letter through two chains of transmission from Abū ʿAbd al-Rahīm, together with Ahmad’s reply:
“In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Bestower of Mercy.
“May Allah be gracious to us and to you in all matters, and, through His mercy, keep us and you safe from every evil. Your letter has reached me, mentioning the arguments advanced by some of the Murjiʾah.
“Know—may Allah have mercy on you—that disputation in religion is not the way of the people of the Sunnah, and that the interpretation offered by anyone who interprets the Quran without a Sunnah indicating the meaning Allah intended by it, or a report from the Companions of Allah’s Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace—the intended meaning is known through what has come from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, or from his Companions. They saw the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and witnessed the Quran’s revelation, what Allah related to him in the Quran, what was meant by it, and what He intended by it: whether it is specific or