will soon be seen to be inadequate.

Second, if a specious doubt occurs to an ordinary person, he continues asking about it and pursuing thorough inquiry until scholars firmly grounded in religious knowledge explain the matter to him in a way that strengthens his confidence.”

He said:

“As for their claim that his knowledge is deficient, if you mean that it is deficient because he fails to reach the conclusion sought in the question, that is impossible. No—this admits of no deficiency, because a person either knows the matter or does not know it; there is no intermediate state. If, however, you mean a deficiency in the number of matters known or proofs understood, that is correct. Yet this distinguishes knowledge required of each individual from knowledge required collectively. It does not undermine the establishment of the matter through its proof, which is indispensable and requires no addition.”

[Ibn Taymiyyah’s Commentary]

I say:

This rests on the premise that knowledge of Allah Most High does not admit of degrees, and that a thing cannot be known in one respect and unknown in another.

This is one of the two views held on this question. It is the view of a group of hadith scholars and jurists among the followers of Ahmad and others, and of many—or most—of al-Ash‘arī’s followers. It is also the view of Jahm ibn Safwān and many of the Murji’ah.

Most people, however, hold the opposite view. Al-Qādī Abū Ya‘lā cited two reports from Ahmad on this matter.

This resembles people’s disagreement concerning reason: whether