(1) B reads: “How long do you find that the following had been written therein: ‘Then Adam disobeyed his Lord and went astray’?” He replied, “Forty years before He created you.” A reads: “How long before He created you do you find that the following had been written therein: ‘Then Adam disobeyed his Lord and went astray’?”—“Forty years.” Ayn reads: “How long before I was created do you find that the following is written therein: ‘And Adam disobeyed his Lord and went astray’?”—“Forty years.” N and M read: “How long before I was created do you find that the following had been written therein: ‘And Adam disobeyed his Lord and went astray’?” He replied, “Forty years.” The reading adopted in the text is perhaps the correct one. (2) The hadith from Abū Hurayra, may Allah be pleased with him, is found in al-Bukhārī, 9/148 (*Kitāb al-Tawhīd*, chapter “Allah Spoke Directly to Moses”); Muslim, 4/2042–2044 (*Kitāb al-Qadar*, chapter on the Debate between Adam and Moses); *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, 1/31–32 (Introduction, chapter on Divine Decree); and *al-Musnad*, al-Maʿārif ed., vol. 13, p. 177, and vol. 14, pp. 23, 56, 245. The hadith is also narrated from Abū Hurayra and Umar, may Allah be pleased with them both, in *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, 4/311–312 (*Kitāb al-Sunna*, chapter on Divine Decree). (3) The word “therein” is absent from B and A. (4) B reads: “Using it as evidence is permissible”; A: “Using it as evidence is widespread”; N: “Invoking it as an argument is permissible”; M: “Such argumentation is permissible.” (5) The text between square brackets is absent from M and N. (6) M and N read: “Another group declared it false”; Ayn: “Another group declared this hadith false.” (7) B and A read: “an unsound interpretation.” Mustajā Zāda copied into the margin of Ayn the words of Ibn Taymiyya beginning with the phrase “Another group declared this hadith false” and ending at this point. He then commented: “I say: Such is the habitual practice of the Qadariyya. Whenever a hadith contradicts the principles they have invented, they reject it and deny that it was transmitted—even if it is one upon which the two shaykhs, al-Bukhārī and Muslim, agreed—or else they reinterpret it. This all stems from their giving rational proofs precedence over transmitted proofs. May Allah Most High reward the efforts of the adherents of truth, support them, and grant them victory, for they do not reject a hadith authentically reported from the Messenger who brought the Sacred Law merely because their minds deem it implausible, even when it conflicts with their reasoning and analogical deductions—except for those among the Māturīdīs who depart from this. As for the Asharīs and Hanbalīs, the warp and weft of their approach is to accept the hadiths transmitted from the Messenger of Allah, may Allah Most High bless him and grant him peace, humbly refraining from denying them even when they conflict with their reasoning and analogical deductions.”