Chapter Twenty-One: On the factors that give rise to taʾwīl.
These factors are four: (1) the speaker’s deficient explanation, (2) the speaker’s ill intent, (3) the listener’s poor understanding, and (4) the listener’s ill intent. Levels of comprehension among people differ enormously, for the capacities of minds are like the capacities of bodies, and human beings vary in both to an incalculable degree.
Chapter Twenty-Two: On the kinds of disagreement produced by taʾwīl and on the division of disagreement into praiseworthy and blameworthy.
In it he discusses the two forms of disagreement mentioned in the Book of Allah.
Chapter Twenty-Three: On the causes of the disagreements that arose among the leading scholars after they had agreed upon a single foundation to which they all referred, namely the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger.
In this chapter he quotes Abū Muḥammad Ibn Ḥazm, then quotes Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah on the causes of disagreement, refining them and adding further clarification. The chapter is truly worthy of being published separately so that its benefit may be widespread; because it deals with the causes of disagreement in subsidiary legal matters, the most suitable place for it would seem to be in Iʿlām al-Muwaqqiʿīn or Badāʾiʿ al-Fawāʾid.
Chapter Twenty-Four: On the four idols by which the proponents of illegitimate taʾwīl have razed the bastions of religion, violated the sanctity of the Quran, and erased the marks of faith. They are:
- Their claim that the speech of Allah and the speech of His Messenger are merely verbal indications that convey no knowledge and yield no certainty.
- Their claim that the verses and hadiths concerning the divine attributes are figures of speech devoid of any real substance.