• (1) The famous Imam who died in the year 280 AH, may Allah have mercy on him. He is the author of the book Naqḍ ʿUthmān bin Saʿīd ʿalā al-Marīsī al-Jahmī al-ʿAnīd and the book al-Radd ʿalā al-Jahmiyya.

The praise of the scholars for his two books has already preceded in the introduction (p. 12), and that they are among the best of what has been authored in the chapters of the Sunna and the refutation of the Jahmiyya who divest [Allah of His attributes].

• (2) ʿUbayd Allāh bin Muḥammad al-ʿUkbarī, the famous Imam, a man of Sunna and following, who died in the year 387 AH, may Allah have mercy on him. It is stated in his biography in al-Siyar (16/529): "The exemplary Imam, the devout worshipper, the jurist, the traditionist, the Sheikh of Iraq." End quote.

Among his most famous works is: al-Ibāna ʿan Sharīʿat al-Firqa al-Nājiya wa-Mujānabat al-Firaq al-Madhmūma, famously known as al-Ibāna al-Kubrā, a large work explaining the creed of the people of the Sunna, in which he followed the methodology of the people of narrations in seeking evidence from the Book, the Sunna, and the reports of the Predecessors (Salaf), while mentioning the chains of transmission for everything he cites. He also authored: al-Sharḥ wa-al-Ibāna ʿalā Uṣūl al-Sunna wa-al-Diyāna, famously known as al-Ibāna al-Ṣughrā, which is a beneficial, concise treatise on the creed of the people of the Sunna, and Allah has granted me success in editing and commenting on both of them. He also has the book Ibṭāl al-Ḥiyal, among others.

• (3) He is ʿAbd Allāh bin Muḥammad bin ʿAlī, Abū Ismāʿīl al-Harawī (d. 481 AH), may Allah have mercy on him, the author of the book: Dhamm al-Kalām wa-Ahlih, al-Arbaʿīn fī Dalāʾil al-Tawḥīd, and al-Fārūq. He is the author of the book Manāzil al-Sāʾirīn, because of which a group of the people of the Sunna disparaged him and criticized him for it, as al-Dhahabī said in Tārīkh al-Islām (33/55): "Our Sheikh Ibn Taymiyya, despite his veneration for Shaykh al-Islām [al-Harawī], used to disparage him and accuse him of grave matters because of what is in this book." End quote.

Ibn Rajab said in Dhayl Ṭabaqāt al-Ḥanābila (1/118): "He has subtle speech regarding Sufism and spiritual wayfaring, and a group [of scholars] took care to explain his book Manāzil al-Sāʾirīn. He frequently alludes to the station of annihilation (fanāʾ) in the Monotheism (Tawhid) of Lordship, and the fading away of everything other than Allah Almighty in witnessing, not in