other than them?! For how many ḥadīths of his in "al-Sunan" and other collections have been authenticated by scholars! Like the ḥadīth: "Allāh does not look at a man who approaches his wife from behind"; it was deemed good by al-Tirmidhī, strengthened by Ibn al-Jārūd (729), authenticated by Ibn Ḥibbān (1302), and before them by Imām Isḥāq ibn Rāhwayh in "Masāʾil al-Marwazī" (p. 221), as well as by Ibn Ḥazm (10/70), and Ibn Daqīq al-ʿĪd in "al-Ilmām" (1127). Even Shaykh Muqbil al-Wādiʿī himself did not weaken this ḥadīth—I mean the ḥadīth about approaching a woman from behind—in his commentary on "Tafsīr Ibn Kathīr" (1/485); rather, he agreed with al-Tirmidhī on its classification as good, and supported it by saying: "Its narrators are the narrators of the authentic collections"! All of this indicates to the researcher that this critic has made criticism his ultimate goal, rather than defending the ḥadīth of the Prophet (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam). Otherwise, how could he dare to oppose the ḥadīth scholars in authenticating this man and their validation of his ḥadīth, merely because of a criticism he saw from some of them, which he cannot—due to his recentness in this field—find a way to reconcile with the mentioned authentication and validation in the manner we have described?!! Truly, my amazement never ceases with our esteemed brother Shaykh Muqbil ibn Hādī; how does he encourage this and others like him among the beginners—such as al-ʿAdawī and al-Muʾadhin and their likes—to climb the ladder of criticism in this field, while they are still at the beginning of the path?! And to occupy us from what we are engaged in—serving the books of the sunnah—by responding to people like them, even with a small amount of time?! And this is not excused by his statement in his introduction to the treatise (p. 9): "And brother ʿĀdil, may Allāh preserve him, even if he is not at the level of the muḥaddith of the era, Shaykh Nāṣir al-Dīn..." This is true and honest; indeed, I testify about myself that I am far below that, but nonetheless, I see it as obligatory upon Shaykh Muqbil to advise those beginners that