And if it is said to be obligatory, what is the wisdom behind the absence of an explicit text from the Lawgiver on this matter that would protect people from falling into ruin, when he, peace and blessings be upon him, was so eager to guide his community?

[The answer]

I replied:

Praise be to Allah, Lord of all worlds.

As for the first question:

[Response to the first question]

The questioner’s words:

“Is it permissible to discuss the questions concerning the foundations of religion that people have debated, even when no statement concerning them has been transmitted from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, or is it not?”

This question is framed according to familiar but false, innovated formulations. For matters that belong to the foundations of religion and truly deserve to be called its foundations—I mean the religion with which Allah sent His Messenger and revealed His Book—it is not permissible to say: “No statement concerning them has been transmitted from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.” Rather, this statement is self-contradictory: their being among the foundations of religion necessarily means that they are among its most important matters and are needed by it.

Denying that any statement concerning them has been transmitted from the Messenger then entails one of two things: either the Messenger neglected the important matters that religion requires and did not explain them, or he explained them but the community did not transmit them.