a trivial man—(in another transmission: a foolish man)(1)—who presumes to speak about the affairs of the common people.

I am not, at this moment, inclined to refute him; to me he is too insignificant and contemptible to warrant my time. Still, I must offer here a few concise remarks, in keeping with the purpose of this introduction, and I say:

First: The book is crammed with fabrications and lies—his habitual fare whenever he soils a page. One example will suffice for the rest. In his introduction (p. 4) he says:

“It is no secret that the shaykh—and those dazzled by him—considers himself the unparalleled figure of his era, peerless in his time, whose words admit of no revision; that he has outstripped his predecessors in tracking down the peripheral narrations, their additions, and in scrutinizing them …” and so continues his drivel.

I have nothing to utter in the face of this two-horned slander except, “Glory be to You! This is a tremendous calumny”(2)—a manifest sin that could proceed only from one heedless of the Almighty’s words: “Whoever commits a sin or wrongdoing and then casts it upon an innocent person has indeed shouldered a slander and a flagrant sin.”(3)

The fresh editions of my books, and the unambiguous statements I have placed in many of them—even in their prefaces—uproot his allegation to the core and slap his grimy face, such as my words in the preface to the eighth edition of my book Ṣaḥīḥ al-Kalim al-Ṭayyib (p. 9):