This is the approach of al-Ashʿarī and the leading figures among his followers, such as Judge Abū Bakr, Abū Ishāq al-Isfarāyīnī, and others like them.

Thus you find that the foremost among them, such as al-Ashʿarī, presents the position of the people of the Sunnah and hadith in general terms, describing it according to what he supposes it entails, and declares that he affirms everything they affirm. Yet when he presents the doctrines of the speculative theologians, such as the Muʿtazilah and others, he describes them as an expert thoroughly acquainted with their details.

Their discussions are useful for recognizing the inconsistencies of the Muʿtazilah and others, and the unsoundness of their positions.

As for knowing what the Messenger brought and what the Companions and Successors upheld, their knowledge falls short. For anyone versed in the transmitted reports and what has been related from the Messenger, the Companions, and the Successors, without looking favorably upon anything that contradicts this, would not join these people. Either he knows in general terms that the proponents of religious innovation who oppose this certainly oppose the Messenger, and knows that whoever opposes the Messenger is astray—as is the case with most scholars of hadith—or he also knows the unsoundness and inconsistency of those people’s positions. The imams of the Sunnah possessed knowledge of this that others did not, such as Mālik, ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Mājishūn, Hammād ibn Zayd, Hammād ibn Salamah, Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah, Ibn al-Mubārak, Wakīʿ ibn al-Jarrāh, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Idrīs, ʿAbd al-Rahmān ibn Mahdī, Muʿādh ibn Muʿādh, Yazīd ibn Hārūn al-Wāsitī, Yahyā ibn Saʿīd al-Qattān, Saʿīd ibn ʿĀmir, al-Shāfiʿī, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Ishāq ibn Ibrāhīm, and Abū ʿAbd al-Rahmān al-Qāsim ibn