— Or an intellectual orientation that uses this claim to plunge people into intellectual labyrinths, baseless rational conjectures, suppositions, and delusions. This is common among the proponents of false speculative theology, such as the Muʿtazila and others.

It is related from Ismāʿīl ibn Ulayya, who said: al-Yasaʿ told me: One day, Wāsil ibn Atā spoke, whereupon Amr ibn Ubayd said, “Do you not hear? Compared with what you are hearing, the discourse of al-Hasan and Ibn Sīrīn is nothing but a discarded menstrual rag.”

It is also related that a leader among the proponents of religious innovation, seeking to establish the superiority of speculative theology over jurisprudence, would say: “The entire body of al-Shāfiī’s and Abū Hanīfa’s knowledge does not extend beyond a woman’s trousers.” Al-Shātibī cited this statement and the preceding one in his book al-Itisām1, and then said: “Such is the speech of these deviants—may Allah destroy them.”

There is no doubt that these are orientations entirely free of the restraints of knowledge and firmly entrenched in caprice and falsehood. We therefore ask Allah, by His grace and generosity, to protect us and you from overpowering desires and ruinous tribulations. We likewise ask Him to preserve for us our scholars, who are the custodians of the revealed law, the guardians of the religion, and the champions of the faith; to reward them most generously on behalf of Islam and its people; to elevate their standing in this world and the Hereafter; and, through them, to grant victory to His religion and exalt His word. He is indeed its Guardian and fully capable of it.