That veterinary doctor, Ismāʿīl Manṣūr al-Miṣrī, has wilfully blinded himself to these scholarly, historical, and real-world facts. Out of his profound ignorance and his obstinate hostility toward the sunnah, he interpreted “wealth” in the hadith in its general sense. He then built upon it an even greater ignorance: namely, his rejection of the hadith and his mockery of those who cite it and believe it authentic. He said:

“The simplest test for exposing the falsehood of this hadith is to ask those who believe in it: Have you found even one case anywhere in the world in which a deceased person’s wealth followed him?? (!) We want a scientific, factual answer, for we have neither seen nor heard of a single dead person—in all of human history—whose wealth followed him as he made his way to the grave ...”

And so on with the rest of his nonsense, spanning two full pages. He concluded it by saying:

“It is a superstition fashioned by tales, nighttime stories, old women’s imaginings, the wishes of the simple-minded, and the fantasies of the common people”!!

I say: I have long complained—and still do—of the deviation of al-Saqqāf, Ḥassān, and their likes from the sunnah, and of their declaring authentic hadiths weak. But when I came across the words of this veterinary doctor, I nearly forgot their offense against the sunnah! I have no doubt that someone like him can only be one of two men: either an agent of some entity hostile to Islam, which employs certain people weak in faith to wage war against Islam in the name of Islam; or an ignorant fool who imagines himself to possess some knowledge and understanding, while in reality he is among those who “think that they are doing good,” or among those of whom Allah said: “They have hearts with which they do not understand ...”

Although this verse is intended to refer to the disbelievers and polytheists, those Muslims who follow their course in criticizing hadiths have a substantial share in it—such as the Muʿtazilah of old and their latter-day followers, like this veterinary doctor, for example. How could it be otherwise, when he takes authentic hadiths whose soundness and acceptance have been unanimously affirmed by all Muslim scholars, then invalidates them through his compound ignorance, thereby incurring the threat in the words of Allah Most High: “And whoever