"It has come to my ears that one of the most revered and well-read ulama of Najd advocated anathema against anyone who professes that the earth is round. This has startled me because Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, the imam of the Najdi revival, as well as other scholars [of this movement, have stipulated that they do not accuse anyone of being an infidel except for a breach of consensus about definite religious questions. But this is not a religious question, and there is no consensus about it. [This has also startled me because the greatest Hanbali Imams from whose books the shaykh ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab and his successors derived Najdi religious renewal are Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Qayyim. The latter has mentioned, in some of his books, that the earth is round. So, if the rumor about this [Najdi scholar were true, would he charge Qayyim with unbelief?"