What is the authenticity of attributing the book *Al-Fiqh Al-Akbar* to Abu Hanifah, as mentioned in Ali al-Qarri’s commentary on it, page 51?

The Shaykh : We are now assuming that this statement or this entire book is authentically attributed to Abu Hanifah and that he said these words. We do not accept this. Why? Because we know that the innovators who opposed the creed of the Sunnah, the people of the Sunnah, and the people of Hadith are those who deny these things, namely the letters and the speech, and so on. They use this to deny what the Noble Qur’an and the authentic Sunnah have explicitly affirmed. For example, I am connecting you now to the fundamental issue: There is no doubt that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) has the attribute of speech, as the Lord of mankind said: . And the Qur’an, by the consensus of Muslims, is the speech of Allah (Mighty and Majestic). The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . So Allah said: . Therefore, we affirm the speech of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) and do not deny it through any form of figurative interpretation. We affirm that the speech of Allah consists of letters, as you heard from his saying (peace be upon him): . But when we affirm this and that, we do not say that the speech of Allah is like our speech, nor do we say that the letter that comes from the speech of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) is like our speech. We affirm what He affirmed and deny what He denied. What did He deny? . What did He affirm? He affirmed hearing and sight. Is this what He affirmed for Himself? Is this what He affirmed for Himself? Far be it from Him. Did He affirm for Himself that hearing is like this? Far be it from Him. Rather, here is a statement by some of the hadith scholars, specifically Abu Bakr al-Khatib, the author of *Tarikh Baghdad*, which you must have heard of. He said a word of truth: if the sects that differed greatly regarding the divine speech had stopped at this point, they would all have agreed on a common word, as He (the Exalted) said: . Likewise, if they had agreed on this word that al-Khatib (may Allah have mercy on him) reminded us of, the disagreement would have been resolved. The disagreement is: “What is said regarding the attributes is said regarding the Essence.” Do we know the modality of the Essence?

The questioner: No.

The Shaykh : We do not know the modality of the Essence; is that not so?

The questioner : Yes.

The Shaykh : But we believe that Allah is an Essence, not merely a mental concept that exists only in the mind without external existence. So what we say regarding the Essence, we say regarding the attributes, because the attributes are connected to the Essence. Just as we believe in the existence of the Divine Essence, we fully believe in the existence of the Divine attributes. Just as we believe that His Essence is not like other essences, we say: His attributes are not like other attributes.