Know that remaining silent about such speech is what is incumbent upon the follower who desires salvation by following the Sunna and the Predecessors (Salaf). For indeed, many of these expressions belong to the blameworthy scholastic theology (ʿilm al-kalām) which the Predecessors (Salaf) warned against and forbade delving into. For this reason, the author omitted many of Ibn al-Zāghawānī's expressions from this text, such as his statement: "He does not touch the creation, nor do they touch Him."

And his statement: "It prevents the permissibility of His touching bodies and substances."

And other newly invented theological expressions.

And God knows best.

Imam Mālik, may Allah have mercy on him, said: "May God curse ʿAmr [meaning: Ibn ʿUbayd, the imam of the Muʿtazilites]; for he invented this innovation of scholastic theology (kalām). If kalām were a science, the Companions and the Successors would have spoken about it just as they spoke about rulings and laws; but it is falsehood pointing to falsehood."

Dhamm al-Kalām by al-Harawī (874), and Mukhtaṣar al-Ḥujja ʿalā Tārik al-Maḥajja by Naṣr al-Maqdisī (212).

And in Al-Sunna by ʿAbd Allāh (90), Imam Aḥmad, may Allah have mercy on him, said:

"I am not a partisan of kalām, and I do not view kalām [as appropriate] in any of this; except for what is in the Book of God Almighty, or in a hadith from the Prophet, peace and blessings of God be upon him, or from his Companions, or from the Successors. As for anything other than that, speaking about it is not praiseworthy."

The consensus of the people of the Sunna has been established on the prohibition of learning the science of kalām and delving into it, as I have clarified in my book: Al-Iḥtijāj bil-Āthār al-Salafiyya ʿalā Ithbāt al-Ṣifāt al-Ilāhiyya (p. 193) (The Ninth Investigation: Warning against kalām and its partisans).

• (1) And in the book Al-Īḍāḥ there are some minor differences that I did not point out.