and in matters of creed they interpret every Qur’anic passage that conflicts with their view in line with their own conjectures, belittling the Book and the Sunnah and dismissing them as (1) mere “outward texts.” When they do argue for their position with verses such as
“Sight can never encompass Him” (2),
“There is nothing like unto Him” (3),
or, “He is with you wherever you may be” (4),
and the like, these texts are not their real foundation; they brandish them (5) only to fend off criticism from the Muslims. As for the Prophetic hadiths, they hold them in no esteem: sometimes they reject them by every means imaginable, and at other times they twist their meanings. They then (6) claim that what they have fashioned by their own reasoning constitutes definitive rational proofs, and that, on account of these proofs, the scriptural texts must be set aside—whether by allegorical interpretation, consigning the meaning, or flat-out denial. In all these fundamentals you are their partners (7)
(1) In the printed edition: samuhuma.
(2) Surah al-Anʿām, 6:103.
(3) Surah al-Shūrā, 42:11.
(4) Surah al-Ḥadīd, 57:4.
(5) The words between quotation marks are an addition found in manuscripts S and T.
(6) Thumma ("then") is omitted in manuscript S.
(7) Imam al-Haramayn al-Juwaynī devotes a chapter to this in al-Irshād (pp. 358–360), entitled "Chapter on the al-samʿiyyāt (Revelatory Matters)," in which he states: "Know, may Allah grant you success, that the fundamentals of creed (usūl al-ʿaqā'id) are divided into those which the intellect can grasp, yet reception through revelation is inconceivable; those which the intellect can grasp but cannot apprehend on its own; and those which can be apprehended by both revelation and intellect." After discussing each category he adds: "Once this premise is established, it becomes incumbent upon every religious adherent who trusts his intellect to examine what the revelatory proofs (al-adillah al-samʿiyyah) address. If he finds nothing impossible for the intellect and the revelatory proofs are conclusive in their chains—allowing no room for doubt either in establishing their principles or in their interpretation—then there is no choice but to accept them with certainty. And if the revelatory proofs are not established by conclusive methods, nor is their content impossible for the intellect, yet their fundamentals are firmly established but the path of interpretation admits latitude—then there is no recourse to ..."