to the Rāfidī school is a source of public aversion to people like these. This is unlike those devoted to poverty and asceticism, including dialectical theologians, mutasarrifs, those who embrace poverty, devout worshippers, and others. Because they share the public’s affiliation with the Sunnah and the community, the heresy of a heretic among them can remain concealed in a way that the heresy of Shiite heretics does not—even though the heresy of someone among them may sometimes be greater.
Thus, the chief of the Prophet’s descendants told me that he said to ʿAfīf al-Tilimsānī:
“You are a Nusayrī.”
He replied:
“Nusayr is a part of me.”
A fuller discussion of this belongs elsewhere.
If it is said:
“Granted that giving revelation precedence over these arguments does not undermine its foundation, it nevertheless gives revelation precedence over rational proofs. The grounds for giving revelation precedence must therefore be explained.”
The reply is that there are several answers.
First: The purpose here is to show that giving revelation precedence over conflicting rational arguments of this kind, newly introduced into Islam, does not mean giving it precedence over the foundation upon which knowledge of its validity depends. This has already been established. Our purpose here was only to refute the claim of those who purport to give reason precedence over revelation when the two conflict. We explained that whatever has been established as valid by proof must be given precedence without qualification.
The second answer: Revelation is the teaching of one protected from error, and its validity has been established by proof. The validity of these methods, however, has not been established by proof. What is known to be valid cannot be opposed by what is not known to be valid.
The third answer: Rather, all these methods that conflict with revelation are invalid according to reason. The validity of revelation rests upon their refutation, not upon their validity. They are therefore invalid according to both reason and revelation,