All such pieced-together arguments stand far removed from the decisive proof that anyone who speaks on matters of religion is required to produce.

Allah Most High has said, “If you dispute about anything, refer it back to Allah and the Messenger, if you truly believe in Allah and the Last Day” (Qur’an 4:59). Where, then, does He command you to refer a dispute to what you have cited, or to the persons you have named?

He also says, “But no—by your Lord, they will not believe until they make you the judge concerning whatever they disagree about” (Qur’an 4:65). Thus, faith itself was made contingent upon accepting his judgment alone; it was never made contingent upon submitting to anyone else’s judgment whatsoever.

You say, “This is the view of the majority.”

If, in every question over which scholars differ, the majority opinion were necessarily correct, then every position in which one of the imams stood apart from the majority would have to be declared invalid. Each faction would then have to catalogue the issues on which the authority they imitate diverged from the majority—something they can neither deny nor admit to be false, leaving them with no refuge but contradiction. Allah alone grants success.

When the majority happens to support their position, they announce it before the whole world and rally the masses against their opponents. Yet when their view runs counter to the majority, they retort, “The majority is not proof; the proof lies in the Book, the Sunnah, and consensus!”

So we ask: why boast about numbers of men instead of vying through weight of evidence?

We have already set forth proofs to which you have no answer (1); what is obligatory is to follow