—then negate it; and whenever a dispute arises, refer back to that same analogy, for it is the truth I have enjoined upon you (1)! As for anything mentioned in the Book and the Sunnah (2) that contradicts this analogy of yours, or establishes something your intellects have not grasped—as most of you claim—then know that I revealed it only to test you (3), not so that you might take guidance from it. Your duty is either to strain yourselves in reinterpreting it by recourse to far-fetched idioms, outlandish usages, and obscure turns of speech, or else (4) to keep silent about it, consigning its knowledge to Allah while denying that it points to any attribute whatsoever! Such, in reality, is the matter according to these dialectical theologians.

I have seen a number of them state this openly, and it is an inescapable consequence of their collective doctrine.

Its upshot is that the Book of Allah provides no guidance for knowing Allah; that the Messenger is cut off from teaching and conveying the attributes of the One who sent him; and that, when people differ, they are not to refer their dispute to Allah and the Messenger, but rather to the very standards that prevailed in the Age of Ignorance and to the tribunals relied upon by those who do not believe in the prophets—such as the Brahmins and the philosophers, that is, the idolaters, the Magians, and some of the Sabians—even though such recourse (5) only makes the matter worse and leaves the disagreement unresolved, for every faction has its own false gods to which it wishes to refer the case.