opposing it with these arguments or relying upon them, when you explain to them their invalidity and the confusion and ambiguity they contain, say: “So-and-so and so-and-so said these things, and they were eminent men. How could something like this have escaped them?” Thus, after turning away from the words of the infallible Messenger, who does not speak from his own desire, and from the consensus of the early generations, who do not agree upon misguidance, and contradicting the intellects with which Allah naturally endowed humankind, they end up blindly following men who say: “These propositions are rational and demonstrative.” Yet other men of the same kind, their equals and greater in number, have disagreed with them on this.
Most students of knowledge whom you find affiliated with philosophy, theology, Sufism, jurisprudence, or other disciplines, when they oppose the texts of the Quran and Sunnah with what they claim to be a conclusive demonstration, a rational proof, a sound inference, a sound experiential insight, or the like, will, if you press them in argument, ultimately resort to blindly following someone they revere, if they are followers, or to something they themselves have fabricated—or imagined—if they are among those who are followed. Both groups have a share in what Allah has said concerning others like them.
Allah Most High says:
“Among people are those who take others besides Allah as equals to Him, loving them as they love Allah. But those who believe are stronger in their love for Allah. If only the wrongdoers could see, when they see the punishment, that all power belongs to Allah and that Allah is severe in punishment! * When those who were followed disown those who followed them, they see the punishment, and all ties between them are severed. * Those who followed will say, ‘If only we could return, we would disown them just as they have disowned us.’ Thus Allah will show them their deeds as sources of bitter regret, and they will never leave the Fire.”
[Al-Baqarah: 165–167].
Allah Most High also says:
“And on the Day the wrongdoer bites his hands, he will say, ‘If only I had taken a path with the Messenger! * Woe to me! If only I had not taken so-and-so as a close friend! * He certainly led me astray