Moreover, in his aforementioned statement concerning Shuʿayb, there is deceptive misrepresentation—or malicious concealment. I do not know whether Shaykh Shuʿayb noticed it or not. For he did agree with me—and I do not say that he merely followed me uncritically, as is his practice in many of his rulings, as his dutiful disciple knows!—that the hadith has the status of a report attributed to the Prophet, in his annotation to Sahih Ibn Hibban (3/132). His disciple knows this; so why did he conceal this agreement?! It is indeed a valid agreement, for we said there in The Authentic Collection:

“The fact that it is attributed to a Companion does not harm it, for it is plainly not something that can be said merely on the basis of personal opinion. This is further supported by the fact that Abu Ishaq was corroborated in attributing it to the Prophet...”

I then cited its chain of transmission and explained that it is sound; Shuʿayb agreed with me on this as well.

Thus, I do not know whether Shaykh Shuʿayb has retracted his annotation, which entails agreement on the two aforementioned points, or whether the annotator of Gardens is untruthful in what he attributed to him.

Whatever the case, the question that naturally arises—as people say nowadays—is this: Any ignoramus, however deeply rooted in ignorance he may be, can oppose a scholar’s opinion, even if he is the foremost scholar of his age—indeed, of all ages—and say, as the preacher said:

“That is his opinion, and I do not share it!”

This is like what some ignoramuses say concerning the views of certain Companions and independent jurists:

“They were men, and we are men!”

So I say to this pretentious scholar:

You have learned our proof from The Authentic Collection that the hadith has the status of a report attributed to the Prophet: namely, that it is “not something that can be said merely on the basis of personal opinion.” Why, then, did you not answer proof with proof, but instead resort to dismissing it by a mere assertion that even the most ignorant of people is capable of making, when you said, “And I do not share it”? And can any