methods knows that whatever in them fails to accord with the Quran and Sunnah contains contradictions and corruption that none but the Lord of all servants can enumerate. Thus, anyone who follows either method ultimately ends in bewilderment and doubt, if he possesses some reason and discernment. If he is ignorant, he falls into extravagant utterances and outrageous claims that only the most ignorant of people would believe.

The former ultimately arrive at doubt, which is failure to believe the truth; the latter ultimately arrive at extravagant utterances, which involve believing falsehood. The first resembles the condition of the Jews, and the second that of the Christians. The most adept practitioners of speculative theology and rational inquiry acknowledge bewilderment and doubt, as is well known of several of them. One such person was speaking from the pulpit and began denying Allah’s being above the Throne, saying:

“Allah existed when there was no Throne, and He has not changed from how He was.”

Shaykh Abū al-Fadl Ja'far al-Hamadhānī rose to address him and said: “Teacher, let us leave aside mention of the Throne and Allah’s rising over it”—meaning that this is known through revelation—“and tell us about this self-evident awareness we find in our hearts. No one who knows Allah ever says, ‘O Allah,’ without finding within himself, before his tongue moves, an inward impulse directed upwards, turning neither right nor left. Do you have an answer to this?”