Introduction

In Deliver From Error, Al-Aqazali considers a piece of advice given by the earlier theologian Ahmad ibn Hanbar. The advice is that if you're going to argue with someone, you shouldn't carefully explain their views and then go on to refute them. After repeating this bit of advice he explains that he did not follow it when he was attacking the Ismaelis because everyone knows what they think anyway. But when it came to attacking philosophy, perhaps he should have listened to Ibn Hanbal.