It may be said: “The Shiite is not to blame for this, since he merely interpreted the abbreviations he saw in the book; and not everyone who quotes from a book is required to verify its texts and symbols.” I reply: This is true. Yet the order of the abbreviations appearing in al-Kanz itself indicates to a scholar that they have been corrupted, without requiring him to consult anything further. The sequence “hāʾ-bāʾ, kāf, ḥāʾ-lām, ṣād” is neither intelligible nor acceptable to scholars, for the “hāʾ-bāʾ” denoting al-Bayhaqī refers to a pupil of the “kāf” denoting al-Ḥākim. How then could the pupil be mentioned before his teacher? This is especially so when his teacher’s book is counted among the works deemed authentic, unlike al-Bayhaqī’s Shuʿab al-Īmān. Moreover, the “ṣād” denoting Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr refers to the earliest of all those denoted by these abbreviations, so how could he be placed after them when he precedes them all? The correct reading, as we have mentioned, is “ḍād,” the abbreviation for al-Ḍiyāʾ al-Maqdisī in al-Mukhtārah. Had the Shiite possessed knowledge of the biographical accounts of the hadith imams, that alone would have protected him from this astonishing muddle.

Furthermore, he interpreted the “ʿayn” as “Abū Yaʿlā in al-Sunan”! It actually denotes Abū Yaʿlā in al-Musnad. Even beginning students of knowledge know that Abū Yaʿlā has no book entitled al-Sunan. He has other strange and astonishing errors of this kind, such as his statement regarding the hadith, “Whoever wishes to look at Noah in his resolve ...”: “Al-Bayhaqī transmitted it in his Sahih, and Imam Aḥmad in his Musnad!” Yet al-Bayhaqī likewise has no Sahih collection, nor did Imam Aḥmad transmit this hadith in his Musnad. Rather, it is a fabricated hadith, as I established in my other book, no. 4903. In that work, I documented many weak and fabricated hadiths which the aforementioned Shiite cited as proof against Ahl al-Sunnah for ʿAlī’s—may Allah be pleased with him—divinely ordained authority and infallibility. Consult nos. 4882–4907 and those following them, and you will see wonders upon wonders. It will become clear to you that the man has absolutely no knowledge of hadith scholarship, its narrators, or its sound and unsound reports; he is merely a haphazard scavenger, gathering whatever he comes across.

(Another Note): The aforementioned Shiite cited the hadith in a footnote to his book (p. 166) with the wording: “just as you were fought over its revelation.” Thus, he altered the Prophet’s—peace and blessings be upon him—words, “I fought,” into “you were fought,” thereby casting aspersions