Among the worst calumnies fabricated against Imām, Shaykh al-Islām Abū Ismāʿīl al-Harawī al-Anṣārī is what the ḥāfiẓ-author recorded in his biography in Tadhkirat al-Ḥuffāẓ, 3/358:

“When Sultan Alp Arslan arrived in Herat on one of his expeditions, the city’s shaykhs and dignitaries gathered together. They entered upon Abū Ismāʿīl, greeted him, and said, ‘The sultan has come, and we are resolved to go out and greet him; we wished first, however, to begin by greeting you.’ They had already conspired to take with them a small copper idol, which they placed in the miḥrāb beneath the shaykh’s prayer-rug. They then departed, the shaykh withdrew to his private chamber, and they went in to the sultan, begging relief from al-Anṣārī, asserting that he was an anthropomorphist and that he kept an idol in his miḥrāb, claiming Allah to be in its likeness. ‘If the sultan sends someone,’ they said, ‘he will find it.’

This weighed heavily on the sultan, who dispatched a servant with a group of men. They entered the house, went straight to the miḥrāb, seized the idol, and returned. The sultan then summoned al-Anṣārī. When the shaykh arrived, he saw the idol, the assembled scholars, and the sultan in great anger. The sultan asked, ‘What is this?’ He replied, ‘A little figure made of brass—no more than a plaything.’ The sultan said, ‘That is not what I am asking about.’ Al-Anṣārī responded, ‘Then what are you asking me?’ He replied, ‘These people allege that you worship this and that you claim Allah is in its likeness.’

Al-Anṣārī cried out in a commanding, resonant voice: ‘Glory be to You! This is a monstrous slander’ (Qur’an 24:16). Realising in his heart that they had lied about him, the sultan ordered that al-Anṣārī be escorted back to his home with honour. He then demanded the truth from the accusers—threatening them. They confessed, ‘We suffer at this man’s hands because of the influence he wields over the masses; we wished to put an end to his harm toward us.’ So the sultan commanded that they be seized, set a guard over each of them, and confiscated their property.”

By way of conclusion, I now present to our esteemed readers a beneficial passage from Imām Abū Muḥammad al-Juwaynī, found at the end of his treatise Al-Istiwaʾ wa-l-Fawqiyyah, in which he renders this matter more accessible by employing concepts from the science of astronomy for those familiar with it. He said:

“There is no doubt that scholars have judged in accordance with what geometry dictates, and its judgment is sound because it is grounded in proof. No discerning person can deny that the earth lies within the higher celestial sphere, and that the sphere …”