to ponder the Quran, and He has urged us to reason about it and grasp its meaning. How, then, could it ever be acceptable that we be asked to turn away from understanding, knowing, and reflecting upon it?!

He continues: “According to these people, the prophets and messengers did not know the meanings of the revelations Allah sent down to them, nor did the angels or the earliest believers. In that case, whatever Allah has used to describe Himself in the Quran—or at least much of it—would be meaningless to the prophets; they would be uttering words whose import they themselves could not comprehend.

“It is obvious that this impugns both the Quran and the prophets. Allah revealed the Quran and announced that He had made it guidance and clarification for humankind. He ordered the Messenger to convey a clear, decisive message and to explain to the people what had been sent down to them, and He commanded us to reflect upon the Quran and reason about it. Yet, by this claim, the most exalted subject matter in the Book—what the Lord has said about His own attributes, about His being the Creator of all things and All-Knowing of everything, about His commands and prohibitions, His promises and threats, and what He has disclosed about the Hereafter—would be such that no one knows its meaning. It could therefore neither be understood nor contemplated, and the Messenger would not have clarified to the people what was revealed to them, nor delivered the clear message.

“On that premise, every heretic and innovator could say, ‘The real truth is whatever I have discovered through my own opinion and intellect, and nothing in the scriptural texts contradicts it, because those texts are problematic and ambiguous, and nobody knows their meaning. A text whose meaning no one knows cannot be used as evidence.’

“Thus this notion blocks the door of guidance and clarification that comes through the prophets and throws it wide open for those who oppose them to say, ‘Guidance and clarification lie with us, not with the prophets, for we know what we are saying and can prove it by rational arguments, whereas the prophets did not know what they were saying, let alone clarify what they meant.’ It therefore becomes clear that the doctrine of the tafwīdites, who claim to be followers of the sunnah and the salaf, is among the worst of the statements advanced by the people of innovation and irreligion.” End of his words—may Allah have mercy on him.} } } }