and contradiction and contempt for reality more appalling than these people’s claim:

Faith cannot be valid except through unbelief; affirmation cannot be valid except through denial; Allah’s pleasure cannot be attained except by doubting Him; and whoever believes with certainty in his heart and affirms with his tongue that Allah is his Lord, that there is no god but Him, that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, and that Allah’s religion is the only religion—such a person is an unbeliever and a polytheist! We seek refuge in Allah from being forsaken.

By Allah, were it not for Allah’s abandonment of them—He prevails in His purpose—no one with any sense would have uttered such an enormity.”

[Ibn Taymiyyah’s commentary]

I say:

This view originated with the Muʿtazilah. Abū Hāshim and a group who followed him made doubt obligatory, declaring it the first of all obligations.

Those who agreed with the underlying position but did not make doubt obligatory said that it must necessarily occur, even though it is not commanded.

This rests on two premises:

First, that the first obligation is inferential reasoning that leads to knowledge.

Second, that inferential reasoning is incompatible with knowledge, since the person reasoning is seeking knowledge and therefore cannot possess knowledge while engaged in that reasoning.

Both premises are false.

The first has already been discussed.

As for the second, inferential reasoning is of two kinds:

The first is reasoning that involves seeking evidence,