as their entire religion and give no weight to the Sunnah. By contrast, the methodology of Ahl al-Sunnah and the scholars of hadith—those who believe in the two revelations and endorse the Prophet’s ﷺ famous sound report, “Indeed, I have been given the Quran and something equal to it along with it,” and another version, “Whatever the Messenger of Allah forbids is just like what Allah forbids”(1)—regards such reasoning, though its proponent claims to belong to them, as patently invalid. The very rebuttal he denies is found in the mutawātir Sunnah, as has already been shown. How, then, can he say that Allah approved of them and did not rebut them, when Allah cursed them through the tongue of His Prophet ﷺ? What rebuttal could be clearer or more explicit than that?

The one who adduces this verse in opposition to the preceding hadiths is like someone who tries to prove the permissibility of fashioning statues and idols by citing Allah’s words about the jinn who were subjugated to Solomon, peace be upon him: “They fashioned for him whatever he desired—chambers and statues…"