I have studied the dialectical systems (1) and the philosophical methods, yet I found that they neither heal the ailing nor slake the thirsty (2). The approach that lies closest to the truth is the way of the Qur’an: in the passages of affirmation I read, “Unto Him ascend good words” (Fatir 10) and “The All-Merciful rose over the Throne” (Ta Ha 5); while in the passages of negation I read, “There is nothing like Him” (Ash-Shura 11) and “They cannot encompass Him in knowledge” (Ta Ha 110). He said, “Whoever has gone through what I have gone through will know what I have come to know.”

Another of them declares (3): “I plunged into the vast ocean (4); I abandoned the people of Islam and their sciences, and entered into that from which they had forbidden me (5). Now, unless my Lord overtakes me with His mercy (6), woe to so-and-so! Here I am (7) about to die upon the creed of my mother.”

Yet another of them says: “Those most given to doubt at the moment of death are the practitioners of dialectical theology (8).”

Then these speculative theologians (9) who diverge from the early generations—when the matter is pressed upon them, they do not