He said: Our shaykh once told me, while describing such people, “They went the rounds of the great jurists only to come away with the basest of gains. As proof that what they have is not from Allah, just look at the contradictions, discrepancies, and mutual clashes it contains. The Most High said, ‘Had it been from other than Allah, they would indeed have found much inconsistency within it’ (4:82). This shows that whatever comes from Him, exalted be He, is free of conflict, and that whatever is riddled with inconsistency and contradiction is certainly not from Him.

“How, then, can mere opinions, imaginings, and stray thoughts be taken as a religion by which people worship and on the basis of which they pass judgment on Allah and His Messenger? Glory be to You—this is a monstrous slander!”

The learning that the Companions used to review among themselves was nothing like the “sciences” of these squabbling fabricators. Al-Ḥākim, in his biography of Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Bukhārī, relates: “Whenever the Companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ gathered together, their discussion centered only on the Book of their Lord and the Sunnah of their Prophet; among them there was neither opinion nor analogical reasoning.”

How aptly the poet put it (1):
Knowledge is: “Allah said,” “His Messenger said,”
“The Companions said”—not gaudy show.
Knowledge is not your foolish staging of debate
Between the Messenger and some jurist’s view;
Nor is it the denial or stripping of the divine attributes
Out of fear of analogy or anthropomorphism.