They said: Something has confounded us and as you are our teacher, can you please remove for us the confusion and clarify for us the correct way to look at it? I said: I have never spared any effort in clarifying what is right and explaining, in revealing the truth and lifting the veil. So what is it that you find difficult and whose reins escape you?

An Indian cinema star once said to a little boy “I have a luxury vehicle, a towering mansion, and millions of rupees – what do you have?”

The boy responded “I have my mother”…

They said: It displeases us that you leave the madhab of Abu Hanifah in some things for the opinions of Malik, Al Shafi’i and Ahmad ibn Hanbal. This is “talfiq” (blameworthy mixing between madhabs).

They said: You have authored “Al Fiqh Al Islami” according to the madhab of Abu Hanifah Nu’man ibn Thabit, may Allah have mercy on him, collating the school’s evidences therein, and you have written a biography on him; so you are a Hanafi.

They said: You have worked in Oxford for twenty years on an academic project looking at the history of the Islamic sciences in India and its Madrassas and centres of learning. So what is the best madrassa in the long history of India…

They said: What is your opinion regarding Shaykh Mohammad Nimr al-Khatib? I said: He is our teacher. The most erudite, the prolific and high narrator of hadith, the virtuous, al-Sayyadi al-Rifa‘i al-Husaini, hailing from the Palestinian frontier town of Haifa.

In the name of God, the Abundantly Compassionate, the Ever Merciful They said: Is it true that you combine Zuhr with Asr and Maghrib with Isha whilst travelling, by advancing one (jam‘ ta‘jil) or delaying the other (jam‘ ta’khir)?

They asked: Inform us of our Lord, bringing Him closer to our perception, without being overly excessive nor deficient through our expressions. I replied: What an excellent matter you have aimed and strived for…