—false, newly introduced, and contrary to revealed law and reason—is the systematic arrangement of principles for denying the Messenger’s truthfulness and opposing clear reason and sound transmitted evidence.

Had these men not presented this as knowledge to be expounded and a religion to be accepted, using it to reject the texts of the Book and the Sunnah and declaring, “This is the truth that must be accepted, rather than the divine texts and prophetic reports that oppose it”; and had groups among the people of knowledge and religion, whose numbers Allah alone knows, not followed them in this, believing them to be more proficient and more rigorous in their investigations—we would have no need to expose these doctrines. Yet the discussion here allows only a brief treatment.

[Al-Rāzī’s statement in al-Arbaʿīn]

Our purpose in recounting this discussion is to make it known that al-Rāzī’s treatment of this question encompasses all the arguments of those who deny it and demonstrates their unsoundness. As for the argument he himself advances, it is weaker than the others, as will be explained below.

He mentions that this question has implications that most schools cannot escape. In his book al-Arbaʿīn, he mentions that these implications also apply to his own followers. He says in al-Arbaʿīn:

“The well-known view is that the Karrāmiyyah allow this, while all other schools deny it. It has also been said that most rational thinkers hold this view, even if they deny it verbally. For Abū ʿAlī and Abū Hāshim of the Muʿtazilah, together with their followers, said that He wills through a newly originated will,