and they also said that it means writing, since transmitted reports and their chains of transmission are recorded in writing. This is because ithāra (a remnant of knowledge) derives from athar (a trace or transmitted report): knowledge conveyed by someone whose statements are accepted is transmitted through chains of transmission and preserved in writing. All of this constitutes traces of that knowledge.

Allah Most High says, describing the hypocrites:

“Have you not seen those who claim to believe in what has been revealed to you and what was revealed before you? They wish to seek judgment from false authorities, although they were commanded to reject them. Satan wishes to lead them far astray. * When they are told, ‘Come to what Allah has revealed and to the Messenger,’ you see the hypocrites turn away from you vehemently. * How will it be when a calamity befalls them because of what their own hands have done, and then they come to you, swearing by Allah, ‘We intended nothing but good and reconciliation’? * Those are the ones whose hearts Allah knows. So turn away from them, admonish them, and speak to them in words that reach their very souls.”
[al-Nisā’: 60–63]

These verses contain various lessons demonstrating the error and hypocrisy of anyone who seeks judgment from something other than the Quran and Sunnah—even if he claims that he wishes to reconcile scriptural evidence with what he himself calls rational arguments, drawn from some of the false authorities among the polytheists and the People of the Book—and other lessons besides,