—that the theologian is not speaking with clear insight, and that his evidence is anything but decisive. Rather, it is just as someone once described:

Arguments so brittle you take them for solid glass—
Each time a shard strikes, both breaker and broken collapse.

[Looking at the People of Kalām through the Lens of the Sacred Law and the Lens of Divine Decree]

A knowledgeable observer understands that, from one perspective, they fully merit the verdict of al-Shāfiʿī (d. 204 AH), who said: “My ruling concerning the people of kalām is that they should be beaten with palm branches and sandals, paraded before the tribes and clans, and it be proclaimed: ‘This is the recompense of those who abandoned the Book and the Sunnah and turned to kalām.’”

From another perspective, however—when you consider them through the lens of the Divine decree, while confusion overwhelms them and Satan has taken hold of them—you feel pity for them and treat them gently. They have been granted sharp intelligence, yet they have not been granted