Another says that the terms “existence,” “essence,” and others are predicated of Him and of existing things through mere verbal homonymy, as with “al-Mushtarī” and “Suhayl.” Thus, general, universal names such as “existence,” “essence,” “self,” “reality,” “living,” “knowing,” “powerful,” and the like are detached from what they designate, and minds deny Him the general, universal meanings and propositions that Allah has placed within them. Yet this is precisely the distinctive faculty of reason that sets it apart from sensory perception. There are other claims of this kind which, to anyone who understands them and grasps what their proponents actually mean, are laughable in one respect, astonishing in another, and infuriating in yet another.

If rational notions such as these were applied to commerce or any craft, they would ruin it. How, then, can they be applied to divine matters and the attributes of the Lord of creation, and then used to oppose the word of Allah with which He sent His messengers and revealed His books?

Whoever delves deeply into rational inquiry and distinguishes clear proofs from specious arguments will find that sound reason agrees more fully than anything else with what the Messenger brought. The greater a man’s knowledge of this, the greater his agreement with the Messenger.

Confusion arose in this matter, however, because certain people possessed an intelligence that distinguished them in various sciences: either natural sciences, such as arithmetic and medicine, or religious sciences, such as jurisprudence.

As for divine matters, their expertise was not comparable to their expertise in those fields, although these are the highest pursuits and the noblest aims. They therefore ventured into them according to their own circumstances, and put forward