views on them expressed in lengthy, ambiguous terms. Many of the leading proponents who employ such language may not grasp what those words actually mean; if you asked them to explain them precisely, they would have nothing to offer but recourse to blindly following their predecessors.

This is found in Greek logic and metaphysics, and in the discourse of the speculative theologians of this community and others. A leading figure in a school—Aristotle, for example—makes certain statements, as do his Greek counterparts and, among the speculative theologians of Islam, Abū al-Hudhayl, al-Nazzām, and their peers. These statements continue to circulate among their followers, who study them as believers study the word of Allah, although most of those who repeat them do not understand them.

The further an expression is from being understood, the more they revere it. Such is the condition of misguided peoples: the less they know of something, the more they revere it. Thus the Rāfidah revere the Awaited One, of whom they have neither sensory evidence nor any report, and whom they have never seen or found any trace of.

Likewise, ignorant Sufis and others like them revere the ghawth (spiritual helper), the Seal of the Saints, and similar notions whose reality they do not know.