thinking well of them to the exclusion of everyone else and imagining that they alone have attained in this field what no one before them ever attained; so that even if every Qurʼanic verse were presented to him he would not follow it until something from their own writings is produced.

[The theologians’ divergence from their predecessors]
Yet for all that, they are at odds with their forebears and do not follow them. Had they but embraced the guidance they can plainly find in their predecessors’ words, one might hope that, coupled with sincerity in seeking the truth, they would grow in guidance.

[The likeness of one who is bigoted to a particular faction yet rejects the truth it contains to the Jews]
Whoever accepts the truth only from a single faction—and then fails to hold fast to the truth that faction itself has brought—resembles the Jews about whom Allah said:
“When it is said to them, ‘Believe in what Allah has revealed,’ they reply, ‘We believe in what was sent down to us,’ yet they reject all that came after it, though it is the truth confirming what they already have. Say, ‘Why then did you kill the prophets of Allah before, if indeed you were believers?’” (Qurʼan 2:91).

The Jews said, “We will believe only in what Allah has sent down to us.” Allah answered them: Why, then, did you kill the prophets before, if you were truly believers in what was sent down to you? In other words, you do not follow what your own prophets brought you, nor do you follow what the other prophets brought; rather, you merely follow your whims. Such is the state of one who fails to follow the truth—neither that which comes from his own faction nor that which comes from others—while remaining fanatically attached to his faction without