The second part of the book is devoted to the discussion of the doctrine of the 'people of the Qiblah, (i.e. Muslims)." The author refutes their erring views, i.e. views contrary to those of the Ibadhis, and justifies the stand-point of the latter. The opinions of Qadarites, Murjiites, Kharijites, Azariqah and Sufriyah, Mu'tazilites Jabriyah, Jahmiyah, and the Hashwiyah, as well as other dissident Ibadhi groups, are discussed in this book wherever they differed from the views of Wahbi Ibadhis.

The following subjects were dealt with in this section: (i) 'Divine Decree'; (ii) 'Divine Will'; (iii) 'Justice'; (iv) 'Faith'; (v) 'Promise and Threat'; (vi) Classification of the Muslims who commit grave sins; (vii) Creation of the Qur'an; (viii) The Proof of God against people; (ix) Religions other than Islam; (x) The 'Names' of Allah; (xi) Allah's friendship and enmity; (xii) The woman who permits sexual intercourse other than per vulvam; (xiii) The Imamate; (xiv) Refutation of the Mu'tazili view of the shedding of Uthman's blood; (xv) Refutation of the Zaydi view on the question of the arbitration; (xvi) Refutation of the Nukkari view on the question of the Imam who is excelled by others; (xvii) The problem of those who believe in the Qur'an, but teach wrong doctrines as a result of incorrect interpretation.

The second scholar in this group is Abu Amr Uthman b. Khalifah al-Sufi, of Wad Suf in southern Algeria. He lived during the first half of the sixth century H.274 His main theological work is K. al-Sualat.275 He also wrote a short treatise on the Islamic sects, Risalah fi bayan kull firqah. In the latter work, Abu Amr dealt mainly with the Ibadhi sects and presented a brief account of their views, but he also mentioned some of the other Islamic sects.256

His K. al-Sualat is a large work on theology, with a mixture of literary explanations of theological expressions based on Qur'an, hadith, and ancient Arabic verse. It is a work rich in data on the Arabic language, together with theological opinions and expressions used among Ibadhi scholars and students. This book, though ascribed to him, is in fact a transmission of the responses given to a large number of questions. The responses were reported by Abu Amr from the students of Abu al-Rabi from their teacher Abu al-Rabi Sulaiman b. Yakhalaf. The book was dictated by Abu Ya'qub Yusuf b. Muhammad, recorded by Isa b. Isa al-Nufusi, reviewed by the students of Abu Amr and checked with the Ibadhi sources and the original sources of Arabic. Then it was examined twice, first by Abu Muhammad Abdullah b. Sajmiman, al-Mu'izz b. Janawin and Abu al-Futuh, then given a final review by Abu Nuh Salih b. Ibrahim.277 The book contains detailed and elaborate answers to more than ninety questions covering subjects such as the unity of God, Profession of the faith, walayah and baraah, command and prohibition, matters which must not remain unknown, as well as basic dogmas of religion (usual al-din), nine of