Did Shaykh Zāhid al-Kawtharī attack the lineage and the Arabic proficiency of Sayyid al-Fuqahāʾ, al-Imām al-Shāfiʿī?. Before we actually discuss the topic, there are a few key points that need to be noted. Sh. Nādir ʿAbd al-Ḥayy al-Shāfiʿī said: “Your task when reading the books of the scholars is not merely to understand what is explicitly stated [i.e., the manṭūq], but to understand both the explicit meaning and the implicit meaning, to extract what the scholar deliberately left unstated, to make speak what he passed over, and to draw inspiration from what was hidden from him. By this method, your reading bears fruit and your knowledge becomes a stored treasure. This way of reading does not come to you by revelation or by magic; rather, you learn it from the scholars. It is enough for you that you attend the master of rhetoricians explaining Dalāʾil, to hear al-ʿAmīd explaining al-Dusūqī, to hear the Shaykh of the Shāfiʿiyyah explaining Tuḥfat al-Ṭullāb, and to hear Dr. Aḥmad Maʿbad explaining Fatḥ al-Mughīth. Just one of these mighty scholars is enough to teach you the method of reading by which you can then proceed through all the books of the scholars.” It is necessary for a person to read the books of scholars with fairness and honesty, making a genuine effort to understand the author’s intent, methodology, circumstances, and other relevant factors, especially when the author is someone with whom one disagrees. This type of intellectual fairness in reading is severely lacking in this Ummah. And I say this candidly, without hesitation in speaking the truth, I myself often fall short of this standard when dealing with those I oppose, though I do try, even if I sometimes fail. Perfection belongs to Allāh alone. That being said, many people, when reading the works of al-Kawtharī, fall into the very problems mentioned above. One example is the claim that al-Kawtharī denied the Qurashī lineage of al-Imām al-Shāfiʿī, a claim that has become widespread among Salafī claimants and even among the scholars who teach them. For instance, Dr. Rabīʿ ibn Hādī al-Madkhalī states this in the eleventh volume of al-Majmūʿ: “And have you read what was written by the one called Masʿūd ibn Shaybah, who was given the title “Shaykh al-Islām,” in the introduction to the book al-Taʿlīm, which was edited and annotated by one of al-Kawtharī’s students, meaning, his attacks against al-Shāfiʿī regarding his lineage, his [knowledge of the aarabic] language, and his jurisprudence, and likewise against al-Imām Mālik as well?..” He also says: “The editor of the book then transmitted from his shaykh al-Kawtharī his statement: “No one before Zakariyyā al-Sājī ever raised the lineage of Shāfiʿ, the grandfather of al-Shāfiʿī to whom he is ascribed, to ʿAbd Manāf, and al-Sājī is someone who has been spoken against.” Al-Kawtharī and those like him ignore the consensus of the scholars on the Qurashī lineage of al-Imām al-Shāfiʿī, may Allah abase the nose of Shantīyah and of those who attack him [al-Shāfiʿī] and his brothers among the Imāms of Islam.” The issue here is that Dr. Rabīʿ is not well-versed in al-Kawtharī’s methodology of criticism. Once he declares certain individuals to be innovators, he refuses to accept anything from them whatsoever. As a result, he also disregards the statements and explanations of al-Kawtharī’s students and those similar to him, despite their being well-versed in their shaykhs’ methodologies. He dismisses their words entirely on the basis that, in his view, they too fall under the category of innovators. This approach has been transmitted to his followers, who attempt to replicate it in the same manner. Moreover, he has authored works criticizing a number of mashāyikh, such as Abū Ghuddah, Muḥammad ʿAwwāmah, Ḥasan Ḥītū, and others. In discussions where he critiques one of their teachers, al-Kawtharī often becomes the central focus. However, he fails to grasp al-Kawtharī’s actual intent and critical methodology,...