“A contradiction—our only course is to keep silent about it
and to seek refuge with our Master from the Fire.

A hand whose blood-money is five hundred (1) gold dinars—
yet why is it amputated for a quarter-dinar?”

I asked him about this, and he replied, “It is like the jurists’ dictum: ‘An act of worship whose rationale is beyond human reason.’”

His amanuensis remarked, “Had he meant that, he would have said taʿabbud (pure submission); yet he chose the word ‘contradiction,’ and then added another verse in which he objects to his Lord.”

With my chain of transmission al-Silafī said, “If he uttered that verse believing in its meaning, then the Fire is his abode and he has no share in Islam.

Besides this, there is what is reported of him in the book al-Fuṣūl wa’l-Ghāyāt. He was asked, ‘How does this compare with the Quran?’ and he answered, ‘The prayer-niches have not polished it for four hundred years.’”

Al-Silafī also said, with the same isnād: “Khalīl ibn ʿAbd al-Jabbār of Qazwīn—who was trustworthy—narrated to us: Abū al-ʿAlāʾ of Maʿarrā narrated to us: Abū al-Fatḥ Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn narrated to us: Khaythamah … and he related a hadith.”

Al-Silafī went on: “Among the strange views of Abū al-ʿAlāʾ is his refusal to eat anything that does not grow from the earth, so that he was counted among the Barahmins. (2) He shares their notion of affirming a Maker while denying the messengers, and of forbidding harm to living creatures—even scorpions and snakes. His poetry bears witness to this, though he never held fast to it.”

Abū al-Makārim al-Asadī recited to me—Abū al-ʿAlāʾ had recited it to us as his own (3):

“They acknowledged God and affirmed His existence,
yet declared: there is neither prophet nor revealed Book.”