Rather, the truth is that if some people were to err concerning subtle matters knowable only through rational inquiry, with no clarification of them in the texts or consensus, no one would be entitled to declare such people disbelievers or transgressors. This differs from the case of someone who denies what the clear, mass-transmitted texts affirm: such a person would have a stronger claim to being declared a disbeliever, if someone who errs in this domain is to be deemed a disbeliever.
The purpose here is not to explain the questions concerning declarations of disbelief, for these are discussed at length elsewhere. Rather, the point is that those who oppose the prophetic texts chiefly rely on statements containing ambiguity and imprecision. Once clarification and distinctions are sought, guidance becomes distinguishable from misguidance.
Transmitted evidence depends on words that convey meanings, whereas words have no bearing on what reason alone indicates.
Any statement whose wording and meaning are absent from the Book, the Sunnah, and the words of the early generations of this community does not constitute transmitted evidence. Agreement or disagreement with it does not determine conformity to the Sunnah or departure into innovation, much less disbelief or faith. Rather, the Sunnah consists in conformity to the evidence of the revealed law, and innovation in opposing it.
Something not known to agree with or contradict that evidence may be called an innovation, since the governing principle is that whatever is not known to belong to the revealed law must not be adopted as religious law or as part of the religion. Thus, whoever performs an act without knowing that it is prescribed has taken a path towards innovation, even if he later discovers that the act is prescribed. Likewise, whoever makes a statement concerning religion without evidence from the revealed law has taken a path towards innovation, even if he later discovers that it accords with the Sunnah.
The point here is that statements with no basis in the Book, the Sunnah, or consensus—such as the statements of the proponents of negation among the Jahmiyyah, the Muʿtazilah, and others, which may include what is true