A man asked Ibn ‘Aqīl, “Do you think I should study speculative theology? I feel that I have a keen intellect.”

He replied:

“Religion is sincere counsel. As you stand now, you are a Muslim whose faith is sound, even though you have not examined ‘the particle’—meaning the indivisible atom—or learned about ‘the leap’—meaning al-Nazzām’s leap. ‘States’ have never crossed your mind, nor have you learned about void and plenum, substance and accident; whether an accident persists for two moments; whether the capacity to act accompanies the act or precedes it; whether the attributes are additional to the essence; whether the name is identical to the thing named or different from it; or whether the soul is a body or an accident. I can state with certainty that the Companions died without knowing these matters or discussing them among themselves. If you are content to be like them, with faith that requires no knowledge of these matters, then be so. But if you consider the method of today’s speculative theologians better than that of Abū Bakr, ‘Umar, and the rest of the Companions, what a wretched belief and judgment!”

He said:

“Moreover, this speculative theology has led its practitioners into doubts and drawn many of them into irreligion as they caught the scent of irreligion in slips of