Fourth: His statement, “but the majority accepted him,” is of no benefit to him whatsoever. It is merely an attempt to mislead and conceal his own defect. For if they did accept him and cite his hadith as evidence, why did he relate that Abu Hatim and al-Nasa'i declared him weak? What, then, is the point of this entire comment? The truth is that al-Kawthari quibbles and equivocates, keeping an escape route open for himself should any scholar refute him.

Fifth: His statement, “They interpreted the hadith,” and so on. I say: What is wrong with interpretation when its purpose is to reconcile the texts of the Shariah? Is this the first authentic hadith to be interpreted? What, then, will al-Kawthari do with the Prophet’s saying, peace and blessings be upon him: “None of you truly believes until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself”? Reported by al-Bukhari and Muslim. Its documentation has already appeared under no. (73). And with his saying: “By Allah, he does not believe! By Allah, he does not believe! By Allah, he does not believe!”—namely, the one whose neighbour is not safe from his harmful acts. Reported by al-Bukhari.

In fact, although this hadith is interpreted, it is an argument against the Hanafis, who still persist in opposing the early generations by maintaining that faith neither increases nor decreases. Faith, in their view, is a single level; thus, they cannot conceive of deficient faith. This is why al-Kawthari tries to reject this hadith: once it is interpreted correctly, it becomes evidence against them, for its meaning is that he is not a believer with complete faith. Ibn Battal said: “The adherents of the Sunnah understood faith here to mean complete faith, because the sinner is in a more deficient state of faith than one who does not sin.” Al-Hafiz mentioned this in (10/28). Similar is what he cited in (12/49) from Imam al-Nawawi, who said: “The sound view, as stated by the verifying scholars, is that its meaning is: he does not commit these sins while he is complete