He also said:

“This is the position of Ahmad ibn Hanbal and his moderate followers. They do not deny that rational inquiry leads to knowledge, but they forbid engaging in it and occupying oneself with it.”

[Al-Juwaynī’s discussion in al-Burhān]

He said:

“The extremists among the Hashwiyya and the literalists rejected both rational and legal inference.”

Abū al-Maʿālī said:

Those reporting these views have used the expression “rational inference” without qualification. If they mean rational inquiry, then it belongs to that category and, when it meets the conditions of validity, leads to knowledge and is enjoined by revelation. Legal inference is accepted and acted upon when it proves sound under the examination appropriate to it. If, however, those reporting these views mean by rational inference judging one thing by analogy with another, and basing reasoning about what is unobserved on a meaning elicited from what is observed, then this, in my view, is invalid and has no foundation. There is therefore no analogy in matters of reason. Students of the rational disciplines have understood this position from us.