judgment to himself and his own opinion, and he did not mention who preceded him in this criticism from the imams of the people of the Sunna and hadith, despite the large number of them who extracted it in their compilations.

Then this judgment upon this hadith became the prevalent one in the footnotes of many edited books of the Sunna and creed! And God's help is sought.

So did these people realize what the early imams of the Sunna and Monotheism (Tawhid) failed to realize, despite the large number of them who narrated it, and even explicitly stated its authentication, acceptance, and use as evidence against the Muʿaṭṭila, the Jahmiyya, the Ashʿarites, and others?!

• Who accepted this hadith, authenticated it, and used it as evidence:

The majority of the people of the Sunna and others used this hadith as evidence, accepted it, and narrated it in their compilations on the Sunna, creed, and refutation of the Jahmiyya, and among them are:

Abū Isḥāq al-Sabīʿī, al-Aʿmash, Sufyān, Shuʿba, Isrāʾīl, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Mahdī, Wakīʿ, Abū Aḥmad al-Zubayrī, ʿAbd Allāh b. Rajāʾ, Yaḥyā b. Abī Bukayr, Muʾammal b. Ismāʿīl, ʿUbayd Allāh b. Mūsā, Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal, ʿUthmān b. Abī Shayba, al-ʿAbbās al-ʿAnbarī, and others who narrated this hadith, using it as evidence against the Jahmiyya, the Muʿaṭṭila, and other people of Innovation.

And among those who used this hadith as evidence and mentioned it in his compilation: ʿAbd b. Ḥumayd in al-Tafsīr, Ibn Mājah in al-Tafsīr, al-Marwadhī in Dhikr al-Maqām al-Maḥmūd, al-Dārimī in al-Naqḍ ʿalā Bishr al-Marīsī, Ibn Abī ʿĀṣim in al-Sunna, ʿAbd Allāh b. Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal in al-Sunna, al-Bazzār in al-Musnad, Abū Yaʿlā in al-Musnad al-Kabīr, Ibn Jarīr in al-Tafsīr, al-Khallāl in al-Sunna, al-Najjād, al-Ṭabarānī in al-Sunna, Abū Bakr ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Ghulām al-Khallāl, Abū al-Shaykh in al-ʿAẓama, al-Dāraquṭnī in al-Ṣifāt, Ibn Baṭṭa in al-Ibāna, Abū al-Ḥasan Ibn al-Zāghūnī, al-ʿAṭṭār in Futyā fī al-Iʿtiqād, al-Ḍiyāʾ in al-Mukhtāra, al-Dashtī in Ithbāt Al-Ḥadd, Ibn Taymiyya in *Naqḍ