I say: The writer says this because he is filled with malice, hatred, and rage towards these two imams, through whom Allah revived the religion, upheld the Sunnah, and utterly crushed those who spread corruption.
The writer’s assertion that the commentary on al-Tahāwī’s Creed is a summary of Minhāj al-Sunnah and Muwāfaqat Sarīh al-Maʿqūl reflects his ignorance and is a lie, as anyone who reads these three works will know.
In his work, Ibn Abī al-ʿIzz quotes from many sources: the two Sahīh collections, the Sunan and Musnad collections, and other works of Ahl al-Sunnah wa-l-Jamāʿah, arranging his commentary according to the order of the text being explained.
- The writer said on p. 58: “… That is why Ahl al-Sunnah wa-l-Jamāʿah explicitly stated that Allah, glorified be He, is not to be described as being either outside the world or within it …”
I say: Far be it from Ahl al-Sunnah wa-l-Jamāʿah to say such a thing! Far be it from them to believe falsehood or profess misguidance!
This is a claim made by the people of innovation in general, both past and present. They propound deviant beliefs, spurious views, and false doctrines, then falsely and deceitfully attribute them to Ahl al-Sunnah wa-l-Jamāʿah.
Abū al-Muzaffar al-Samʿānī said, as quoted by al-Taymī in al-Hujjah (2/223–225):
“Every group of innovators claims that what it believes is what the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, adhered to. For they all profess adherence to the law of Islam and outwardly observe its rites, believing that what Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, brought [is the truth]. Yet their paths subsequently diverged, and they introduced into the religion what Allah and His Messenger had not authorized. Each group thus claimed that it alone adhered to the law of Islam, and that the truth upheld by the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, is what