their speech. The root of all this is that they were not content with what the revealed laws deemed sufficient, but sought the underlying realities. Yet reason cannot grasp the wisdom known to Allah alone, nor has the Creator disclosed His own knowledge of the true realities of things. The earliest generation followed the same course as the prophets, relying on these persuasive explanations. When they sought to go beyond them, they were brought back to a position whose utmost limit is accepting Allah’s judgment and submitting to Him. This is precisely what a faction of speculative theologians disparages in the adherents of transmitted knowledge and the Sunnah, calling them the Hashwiyya. Yet the speculative theologians themselves ultimately arrive at the same position. They merely make themselves appear accomplished by claiming what they do not possess and have not attained. They are like someone who claims to be healthy by putting on a brave face while he is ill, or puts on airs of wealth before the poor while he is penniless. Although reason seeks explanations, it acknowledges that above it lies divine wisdom, which calls for humble submission and acceptance of the judgment of the One of whose creation reason itself is a part.”

He said:

“Doubts entered only through three paths, all of which lead back to a single path: some people considered reason to be the foundation of inquiry