Arabs and Hebrews? Everyone knows that the intellects of the Companions, their Successors, and those who followed them were the most perfect of all human intellects.

Consider their followers as evidence. If you doubt the intelligence of men such as Mālik, al-Awzā‘ī, al-Layth ibn Sa‘d, Abū Hanīfa, Abū Yūsuf, Muhammad ibn al-Hasan, Zufar ibn al-Hudhayl, al-Shāfi‘ī, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Ishāq ibn Ibrāhīm, Abū ‘Ubayd, Ibrāhīm al-Harbī, ‘Abd al-Malik ibn Habīb al-Andalusī, al-Bukhārī, Muslim, Abū Dāwūd, and ‘Uthmān ibn Sa‘d al-Dārimī—indeed, men such as Abū al-‘Abbās ibn Surayj, Abū Ja‘far al-Tahāwī, Abū al-Qāsim al-Khiraqī, Ismā‘īl ibn Ishāq al-Qādī, and others like them—if you doubt this, then you are either profoundly ignorant or obstinately denying the obvious. Consider their deference to the Companions and their high regard for the Companions’ intellects and deeds: none of them would even dare to disagree with a Companion unless another Companion had disagreed with him.