He was asked about the words of al-Ghazali in his books and questions concerning him. And whether frequent refutation of him is beneficial.

Al-Huwayni: Your Eminence, have you read the book ofThe Shaykh : Muhammad al-Ghazali, the latest one?

The Shaykh : I have read from it, and it is a calamity in its entirety, and I have written some refutations in some annotations that will appear soon.

The questioner : For you?

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner : I read it in the handwriting of our Shaykh on his copy, and I finished reading this book on such-and-such a date, and it is one of his worst books, yes indeed.

The Shaykh : It was newly printed now, printed recently, "The Description of Prayer." I had quoted from it in the introduction, a phrase I benefited from when I was speaking about the rigidity of the madhhab followers. I quoted from a book of his, I do not know what it is now. A conference was held in some American country with some Orientalists, so they asked themselves: this Islam to which you call, in what form? Is it Sunni Islam? Or Shia Islam? Or so on. All of this is mentioned byThe Shaykh : al-Ghazali. Then he says a word of truth, he says: "But the Muslims themselves are confused in their religion." I had quoted this phrase, and now I have annotated it with about a page and a half of fine handwriting. It has finally become clear that one of these confused people isThe Shaykh : al-Ghazali himself. I proceeded in the speech and mentioned some of his positions in this book. Also, I think I have a refutation of him in the introduction to Muslim or al-Bukhari.
Al-Huwayni: Al-Bukhari, O Shaykh.

The Shaykh : Al-Bukhari, yes.
Al-Huwayni: And he is now engaged in compiling a book on the model of the Prophetic Sunnah.

The Shaykh : How on the model of the Sunnah?
Al-Huwayni: On the model of his book, "The Woman Between the Scholars of Jurisprudence and the Scholars of Hadith."

The Shaykh: Allah is the Greatest, against him.
Al-Huwayni: We heard this a few days ago. And Allah knows best that he will follow the same path. And I do not know if he will launch a fierce war in the newspapers, and even the vulgar magazines of artists and actresses will host him, and his talk is on the topic of singing. He describes those who say it is forbidden as fools and ignorant, and that their feelings are rigid and they have lust and very strange things, meaning very severe words...

The Shaykh : Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest. Drink, O Shaykh.

The questioner : May Allah reward you.

The questioner : Here are the two who refuted him, in a book he titled "The Crisis of Religious Dialogue." His name is Jamal Sultan. He said that the wonder of wonders is that al-Ghazali is partnered with two Christians in publishing a magazine called "Everyone," to display pictures of naked, immodest, sinful, and wicked women.

The questioner : Yes, he writes. This magazine is new with us in Egypt.

The questioner : I looked at the magazine. He has a page of fatwas in it, and before and after the page are immodest, naked women, and he issues fatwas. And they consider the fatwa reliable and the scholars reliable, and so on...
Al-Huwayni: Yes, this magazine exists with us in Egypt.

The Shaykh : Glory be to Allah!
Al-Huwayni: The youth with us in Egypt suffer from this calamity, a continuous calamity of attacking the Salafis on the radio and television. Of course, the government takes the pretext that al-Ghazali has been a mujahid and a da'iyah all his life, and then he turned against you, which indicates that you are also wrong, and this is extremism. We have been afflicted with a great calamity.

The Shaykh : Allahu Akbar.
Al-Huwayni: Because of al-Ghazali's fatwas and lectures...

The Shaykh : Is he residing with you?
Al-Huwayni: Yes.

The Shaykh : Where in Cairo, or?
Al-Huwayni: Yes, in Cairo, meaning he is...
Al-Huwayni: Please, Shaykh.

The Shaykh : Excuse me, I wanted to say, O Allah, protect us from his evil, yes.
Al-Huwayni: In his latest book, he addressed your fatwa... that there is no evidence for the obligation of trading in goods, in the book "The Prophetic Sunnah." And although he did not mention it, but he said, meaning some scholars of hadith issued a fatwa that there is no evidence for the obligation of trading in goods, and this fatwa strikes Islam with severe harm...

The Shaykh: Allahu Akbar.
Al-Huwayni: Since it is not reasonable that a man who grows barley, and this does not constitute a small amount of dirhams, pays zakah, and a man who has millions, or even billions, does not pay and is not obligated to pay zakah. And this is also a question, in fact, I was going to direct it to us to also deal with the severe harm, in fact?

The Shaykh : In any case, this answer is with me, our brothers have heard it repeatedly...
Al-Huwayni: But the truth is, it did not reach me.

The Shaykh : I say, if Allah wills, in a session, we will speak in some detail.
Al-Huwayni: If Allah wills.

The questioner : Our Shaykh, do you see expanding the refutation of this man, the interaction with the issue...?

The Shaykh : Correct, but the problem is that the refutation means, first, scholarly in hadith, and second, in jurisprudence, and correct jurisprudence.
Al-Huwayni: He wrote in the poetry magazine with us, that he finally preferred and decided that he will not respond to those who refute him, because they will not bring anything new. Meaning, even the transmission he transmitted falsely about the scholars, or that they agreed that the blood money of the woman is not half of the blood money of the man, this specific detail with the scholars, of course their texts are known, he will not respond to it. Meaning, even the authentication of the text withThe Shaykh : al-Ghazali, meaning it does not exist. So the truth is, in the end, he said that they insult and denigrate and do not respond with a scholarly response; therefore, I preferred not to respond, and I will not respond to any man who responds to my book.
Al-Halabi : It seems that in the new edition he returned from some...
Al-Huwayni: He did not return, rather it was established in the sixth edition.
Al-Halabi : In the seventh edition. The seventh edition which has a new introduction and added some issues and softened his tone in some issues.

The Shaykh : But I think he will not hold back from responding, this is impossible. This is of the nature of throwing dust in the eyes. It is not possible except that he will respond, but perhaps he will respond in the best manner.
Al-Halabi : Have you read the thesis "Al-Mi'yar" by the brother Salih ibnThe Shaykh ؟
Al-Huwayni: Ah.
Al-Halabi : Good, what Allah willed.

The Shaykh : Who is he?
Al-Halabi: Our brotherThe Shaykh : Salih ibnThe Shaykh : His thesis "Al-Mi'yar," have you looked at it, O our Shaykh?

The Shaykh : Yes, a good thesis, yes.

The questioner : Do you not see, O Shaykh, that the multitude of refutations against him makes his book a defense, and it increases in defense...?

The Shaykh : It is true that the refutation of him should be scholarly, and not emotional, and most refutations are usually of this kind. But in any case, and perhaps you will hate a thing and it is good for you. This is what is not organized, O my brother, meaning as a publisher of Islamic emotions, from some of those who send his book, and therefore it cannot be said, do not respond. Rather, we say, everyone responds with what he has of knowledge. Good, if you have eaten, then disperse. Do you allow us? And Glory is to You, O Allah, and praise, I bear witness that there is no god but You, I seek Your forgiveness and I repent to You.