—His statement: “Indeed, those who differed concerning the Book are in extreme dissension” (al-Baqarah 2:176).

Likewise, the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ accords with the Book of Allah. Consider the well-known ḥadīth—part of which Muslim transmits from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr, while its full wording is found in the Musnad of Aḥmad and other collections through the chain of ʿAmr ibn Shuʿayb, from his father, from his grandfather: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ came upon his Companions while they were arguing about predestination. One man was saying, “Did not Allah say such-and-such?” while another retorted, “Did not Allah say such-and-such?” It was as though pomegranate juice had been dashed upon his face. He said, “Is this what you have been commanded to do? Those before you were destroyed only by this: they pitted one part of the Book of Allah against another, whereas the Book of Allah was revealed so that one part confirms another, not so that one part should belie another. Observe what you have been ordered to do and carry it out; and whatever you have been forbidden, shun it.” This wording—or something close to it—is reported in the ḥadīth.

The same warning appears in his statement, “Disputing about the Quran is disbelief,” and in what the two Ṣaḥīḥs relate from ʿĀʾishah: the Prophet ﷺ recited, “He is the One who has sent down to you the Book: in it are verses that are clear—they are the foundation of the Book—while others are ambiguous. Those in whose hearts is deviance pursue what is ambiguous in it, seeking turmoil and seeking its interpretation” (Āl ʿImrān 3:7). He then said, “When you see people pursuing what is ambiguous therein, they are the ones Allah has named; so beware of them.”

As for the notion that the Book or the Sunnah might forbid acquiring knowledge of issues that rightly belong to the fundamentals of Allah’s religion, that is simply not the case—except that we may be prohibited from addressing some of those matters in particular situations, such as speaking to an individual