The reality is just as he described them—may Allah have mercy on him. For the disputants—the proponents of the doctrines recorded in works of kalām, whether those works merely transmit their positions or transmit them together with analysis and an account of their disputations (1)—are at variance over the Book. Each of them accepts part of it and rejects part, deeming whatever accords with his own view to be the definitive passage that must be followed, while whatever conflicts with it (2) is the ambiguous passage that must either be reinterpreted or consigned to Allah.
This is found in everyone who has written (3) on kalām and cited (4) the texts that (5) he adduces (6) as evidence and that are adduced as evidence against him. You will find him reinterpreting the texts that conflict with his position in ways that, were someone else to do the same, he would raise a tremendous outcry against him. He interprets verses to mean what he knows with certainty the Messenger did not intend, what the wording does not indicate at all (7), and what is contrary (8) to the interpretation known from the Companions and the Followers, as well as to other texts.
(1) H reads: *li-l-jadal* (“for dialectical disputation”).
(2) N, M, W, and A read: “and whatever was contrary to it.”
(3) H and R have a blank in place of “who has written.” A reads: “in every work,” while N and M read: “in every category.”
(4) W reads: “and cited”; all other manuscripts read: “and cites.”
(5) W reads: *alladhī* (“that,” masculine singular).
(6) H and R have a blank in place of the phrase “that he adduces.”
(7) H reads: “he did not intend it,” followed by a blank approximately the length of the word “knowledge,” and then: “and by what the wording does not indicate at all, out of ignorance.” R resembles H, except that it has no blank after “he did not intend it.” A reads: “he did not intend it, and the wording indicates it in the first place.” N, M, and W read: “he did not intend it, and what the wording does not indicate at all.” What I have established is perhaps the correct reading. After these phrases comes a passage spanning approximately four pages, which is misplaced in B, H, R, and A. I shall indicate its proper location below, if Allah wills.
(8) N and M read: “and it is contrary”; R and B read: “it is only contrary to the interpretation.” These words occur in B halfway down the following page, 3/70.