Jamal ud Din al Qasimi, a Salafi scholar and associate of Rida, claimed that Abduh abided by the creed of the "Salaf". In an effort to buttress this rather ambivalent claim, al-Qasimi recounted a private conversation he had with Abduh in Cairo in 1903. One evening, when he suggested that the way of the pious ancestors was the most correct theological approach, al-Qasimi affirmed that he saw 'Abduh assenting in silence. But an alleged nod of approval is not exactly a powerful piece of evidence.