and fight them with the sword; this is fighting that constitutes civil strife. Some people acquiesce in injustice without opposing it, as did some of the people of Syria. Others countered it with injustice and aggression, agreeing with the rulers in neither truth nor falsehood, like the Khārijites. Still others sometimes acquiesced in injustice and sometimes repelled injustice with injustice, as was the case with many of the people of Iraq.

Many people take the same approach toward proponents of theological and practical innovations: they either agree with them in their false innovations, counter these with another false innovation, or combine both approaches. Rather, the right course is never to endorse the falsehood of those who uphold it, nor ever to counter it with falsehood. The believer must therefore adhere to the truth—which is what Allah sent His Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, to convey—and not depart from it for a contrary falsehood, whether to agree with someone who asserts it or to counter someone’s falsehood with falsehood.

Both approaches necessarily entail opposing the explicit texts of the Quran and Sunnah with what contradicts them, even if this is not apparent at first sight.

[Continuation of al-Khattābī’s discussion in al-Ghunya]

Abū Sulaymān said:
“If these people say, ‘But you have rejected kalām (theological disputation)