There are, then, only three possible courses: this sound course of affirmation without likening, the course of sheer taʿṭīl (total negation), or a self-contradictory course whose adherent can plant no firm foot—either in denial or in affirmation. Allah alone grants success.

In reality, every sect allegorically interprets whatever clashes with its own doctrine (1) and school. Thus the decisive scale for what is to be re-interpreted and what is not is nothing but the creed it has adopted (2) and the principles it has laid down (3): whatever accords with those principles they accept without reinterpretation, and whatever conflicts with them—if they can dismiss it outright they do so, and if not, they explain it away.

Accordingly, when the Rāfiḍah (Shiʿite rejectionists) built their religion on enmity toward the Companions, they either rejected or re-interpreted every report that spoke of the Companions’ merits and praise.

When the Jahmiyyah (Jahmites) established the principle that Allah neither speaks nor addresses anyone, is not seen by the eyes, is not above His Throne distinct from His creation, and possesses no attribute inherent in His Essence, they allegorically interpreted everything that ran counter to the foundations they had set.

And when the Qadariyyah (Qadarites) asserted that Allah, exalted is He, neither creates His servants’ deeds nor decrees them for them, they re-interpreted everything that conflicted with their principles (4).