they reach puberty.” He said:

“All other Muslims said: Anyone who believes in his heart with a conviction free of doubt, declares with his tongue, ‘I testify that there is no god but Allah, that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, and that everything he brought is true,’ and disavows every religion other than the religion of Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, is a Muslim and a believer. Nothing more is required of him.”

[Ibn Taymiyyah’s commentary]

I say:

The first position was originally known among those who espoused it from the Qadariyyah, the Mu‘tazilah, and similar practitioners of speculative theology. Those Ash‘arīs who adopted it did so in agreement with them. Hence Abū Ja‘far al-Simnānī said:

“The doctrine that reasoning is obligatory is a remnant of Mu‘tazilī teachings that has remained within the school.”

Those who make reasoning obligatory base this on the premise that the requisite knowledge cannot be attained except through reasoning. This is especially true of the Qadariyyah among them, for they deny that people can be rewarded for the necessary knowledge created within them. Making reasoning obligatory for everyone is not, however, the position of all the Ash‘arīs; rather, they disagree on this matter.

[Al-Ash‘arī’s remarks]

Al-Ash‘arī said in one of his books:

“Some of our companions said: The first obligations are to affirm Allah Most High, His messengers, His books, and the religion of Islam.

He also said:

If someone were to ask about a person who had arrived from China and witnessed the disagreement, ‘What is required of him?’

He said:

There are two answers concerning him. The first is that he is required to