Then, these later people who claim affiliation with him did not follow him in the manner they ought to, and that is because Abu al-Hasan had
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The Shaykh :"Then, these later people who claim affiliation with him - that is, with al-Ash'ari - did not follow him in the manner they ought to. Yes, they did not follow him in the manner they ought to." Who do I think, and who do you think?
The student: Who.
The Shaykh :"Who ought to be, and that is because Abu al-Hasan had three stages in his creed:
The first stage: the stage of the Mu'tazilah. He adopted the doctrine of the Mu'tazilah for forty years, affirming it and debating in its support, then he turned away from it and explicitly declared the Mu'tazilah misguided, going to great lengths in refuting them - what is your reference? - *Majmu' al-Fatawa* of Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, page 73, part 4.
The second: the second stage: a stage between pure Mu'tazilism and pure Sunnah, in which he followed the path of Abu Muhammad 'Abdullah ibn Sa'id ibn Kullab. Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) said from volume sixteen of the *Majmu' al-Fatawa*, page 471, of Ibn Qasim: "And al-Ash'ari and his like are an interval between the Salaf and the Jahmiyyah; they took from the former correct speech and from the latter rational principles which they thought were correct, but they are defective." This is between this and that.
"He said: The third stage: the stage of adopting the doctrine of the people of the Sunnah and the Hadith, whose Imam is Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal (may Allah have mercy on him), as he affirmed in his book *Al-Ibanah 'an Usul al-Din*." And it is one of his last books, or his last.
The student: Who.
The Shaykh :"Who ought to be, and that is because Abu al-Hasan had three stages in his creed:
The first stage: the stage of the Mu'tazilah. He adopted the doctrine of the Mu'tazilah for forty years, affirming it and debating in its support, then he turned away from it and explicitly declared the Mu'tazilah misguided, going to great lengths in refuting them - what is your reference? - *Majmu' al-Fatawa* of Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, page 73, part 4.
The second: the second stage: a stage between pure Mu'tazilism and pure Sunnah, in which he followed the path of Abu Muhammad 'Abdullah ibn Sa'id ibn Kullab. Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) said from volume sixteen of the *Majmu' al-Fatawa*, page 471, of Ibn Qasim: "And al-Ash'ari and his like are an interval between the Salaf and the Jahmiyyah; they took from the former correct speech and from the latter rational principles which they thought were correct, but they are defective." This is between this and that.
"He said: The third stage: the stage of adopting the doctrine of the people of the Sunnah and the Hadith, whose Imam is Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal (may Allah have mercy on him), as he affirmed in his book *Al-Ibanah 'an Usul al-Din*." And it is one of his last books, or his last.