“We are certain that the Prophet ﷺ did not say, ‘Where is Allah?’ Rather, he said, ‘Do you testify that there is no god worthy of worship but Allah?’ This was narrated by Ahmad … and … and … with authentic chains of transmission.”

He then repeated something similar elsewhere (pp. 186–187).

It contains numerous astonishing falsehoods—confirming that the man neither fears Allah nor is ashamed before Allah’s servants—which would take far too long to discuss. I shall therefore be as concise as I can:

One such falsehood is that the wording which he attributed to Ahmad—and to the others indicated by dots, who number eight—gives readers the impression that all of them narrated it in the wording cited and from one Companion. This is falsehood and fabrication. Rather, they narrated it in more than one wording and from more than one Companion. Some narrated it from an Anṣārī Companion—the report which al-Bayhaqī deemed defective because of a missing link, as stated above. Others narrated it from al-Sharīd, whose chain is good, despite the difference of opinion concerning it mentioned above; moreover, its wording is, “Who is your Lord?”, contrary to the wording cited. Others narrated it from Ibn ʿAbbās, but it contains Ibn Abī Laylā.

So where are the authentic chains of transmission that he falsely and mendaciously claimed?! Indeed, he soon contradicted himself in the other place referred to, for, after some of the sources indicated by dots, he said:

“… al-Ṭabarānī (12/27), with an authentic chain …” He then mentioned two further sources, thus completing the eight.

I say: This too is a lie, as you have seen—especially if the pronoun is referred back to the nearest antecedent, namely al-Ṭabarānī, for it contains Ibn Abī Laylā, as you have seen.

Another aspect of his deception, in addition to what has preceded, is that he deliberately refrained from adding Abū Dāwūd and Ibn Khuzaymah altogether to those sources, or the seventh volume of al-Bayhaqī’s Sunan, because