—a group of scholars, as we have already mentioned,¹ and there is no doubt that giving up superfluous disputation is one of the beauties of a person’s Islam.

Ibn Abī Zayd² himself was a leading scholar in the Maghrib. Nicknamed “the little Mālik,” he was unmatched in the science of legal theory. Ḥāfiẓ Ibn ʿAsākir mentions him in his Exposing the Lie Attributed to al-Ashʿarī but records no date of death. He died in 386 AH—some say 389 AH—and people took him to task for using the phrase “in His very essence.” Would that he had left it out.

289- I say: He is ʿUbayd Allah ibn Saʿīd ibn Ḥātim al-Bakrī, an exacting ḥadith master who died in 444 AH. The author states in al-Tadhkirah 3/297: “He is the author of the major work al-Ibānah al-Kubrā on the issue of the Quran—an extensive book that attests to the man’s leadership and his expertise in narrators and transmission routes.”

290- His biography has already been given.

291- The nisbah is to Jīl, a region made up of scattered districts beyond Ṭabaristān, also called Jīlān or Kīlān. He was one of the foremost Ḥanbalī jurists, firmly committed to the Sunnah on the divine attributes and other matters, and vigorous in refuting its opponents. Renowned for piety and Sufism, he underwent spiritual states and ecstatic utterances, yet they never carried him into the slips of other mystics—such as the doctrine of indwelling. He died in 561 AH at the age of ninety.

292- I say: These scholars and their like are the very Ahl al-Sunnah whom al-Kawtharī—may Allah deal with him as he deserves—derides as “the shaykhs of the Ḥashwiyyah,” simply because they are quick to transmit this expression “in His very essence” from Ibn Abī Zayd. He claims the wording is either an interpolation or, at best, a nominative qualifier meaning “the Glorious in His very essence.” Such, then, is the method of casting doubt on the statements of the scholars: either by denying them outright or by twisting them with a baseless interpretation!

2934- I say: His point was that Ibn Abī Zayd should have omitted the phrase only to spare himself people’s censure, not because it is erroneous in itself—for the author has just cited many scholars who used it. In fact, there is no real difference between that phrase and the author’s own earlier statement, “Allah, exalted is He, is the Creator of all things in His very essence.” On this, see Ibn Taymiyyah, Ḥadīth al-Nuzūl, p. 56.