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The_Savior_from_Spiritual_Error_and_50_Principles, page : 75
what is in their books, when I received a definite command from His Majesty
the Caliph to write a book exposing their religious system. The fact that I could
not excuse myself from doing this was an external motive reinforcing my
original impulse. I began to search for their books and collect their doctrines.
There had already come to my ears some of their innovated utterances, the
product of the thoughts of contemporary members of the sect, which differed
from the familiar formulations of their predecessors.
I made a collection of these utterances, arranged them in logical order and
formulated them correctly. I also gave a complete answer to them.
Consequently, some of the orthodox (Ahl al-Haqq) criticized me for my
painstaking restatement of their arguments. “You are doing their work for
them”, they said, “for they would not uphold their system in with these dubious
and ambiguous utterances had you not restated them and put them in order”.
In a way this criticism is justified. Ahmad Ibn Hanbal once criticized al-Harith
al-Muhasibi, may Allah have mercy on them, for his book, The Refutation of
the Caliph to write a book exposing their religious system. The fact that I could
not excuse myself from doing this was an external motive reinforcing my
original impulse. I began to search for their books and collect their doctrines.
There had already come to my ears some of their innovated utterances, the
product of the thoughts of contemporary members of the sect, which differed
from the familiar formulations of their predecessors.
I made a collection of these utterances, arranged them in logical order and
formulated them correctly. I also gave a complete answer to them.
Consequently, some of the orthodox (Ahl al-Haqq) criticized me for my
painstaking restatement of their arguments. “You are doing their work for
them”, they said, “for they would not uphold their system in with these dubious
and ambiguous utterances had you not restated them and put them in order”.
In a way this criticism is justified. Ahmad Ibn Hanbal once criticized al-Harith
al-Muhasibi, may Allah have mercy on them, for his book, The Refutation of