so if many of the fine-grained questions over which the ummah has differed remain, for a great number of people, unclear—such that they can find no proof that yields certainty, whether textual or otherwise—then a person in that position is not duty-bound to attain what lies beyond his reach. Nor must he abandon whatever degree of conviction he can in fact achieve—a strong belief that predominates in his mind—just because he is unable to reach absolute certainty. That is precisely the level he is capable of, especially when it accords with the truth. A belief that matches reality benefits its holder, earns him reward, and discharges the obligation when he is unable to go further.

Yet it should be understood that most of those who go astray in this area, or who feel unable to recognize the truth, do so only because they fall short in following what the Messenger brought and neglect the reflection and reasoning that would lead them to know it. When they turned away from Allah’s Book, they went astray. Allah says: “Whenever guidance comes to you from Me, then whoever follows My guidance shall not go astray nor be miserable; but whoever turns away from My remembrance will have a constricted life, and on the Day of Resurrection We shall raise him blind” (Q 20:123–124). Ibn ʿAbbās said: “Allah has guaranteed that whoever recites the Quran and acts upon it will not go astray in this world nor be wretched in the Hereafter,” and then he recited this verse.

Similarly, in the hadith reported by al-Tirmidhi and others from ʿAlī, the Prophet ﷺ said: “There will be tribulations.” I asked, “What is the escape from them, O Messenger of Allah?” He replied, “The Book of Allah: in it is the story of those before you, the news of those who come after you, and the judgment of what lies between you. It is decisive and not a joke. Whoever abandons it out of tyranny, Allah will crush him; and whoever seeks guidance elsewhere, Allah will let him go astray. It is Allah’s firm Rope, it is…”