- Reason—the heart
The heart perceives both what is witnessed and what is heard; it therefore must comprehend what Allah has commanded and related, just as it must comprehend what we ourselves observe and sense. In this way it grasps both the visible and the unseen, securing knowledge of them in a fixed, universal manner within the soul.
Yet the claim of one party that the intellect detects the goodness or badness of an act only insofar as it feels a natural affinity for it is false, just as the claim of the other party that the Sacred Law can declare something good or bad while containing no intrinsic harmony or aversion is likewise false. The first group denied such harmony because they wished to affirm for the Lord attributes of the sort they recognize in human beings, and so they rejected the notions of suitability and aversion in relation to Him. The second group sought to establish a legislation founded solely on unqualified will, one that admits no harmony or disharmony. Both factions thus denied the reality of Allah’s love and approval for good deeds and His hatred of those who commit evil—precisely what they label, in our case, “suitability and aversion.” Their error springs from the Jahmite tendency that lingers within them.
For this reason the former, in addition to denying these divine attributes, rejected predestination—the universality of His power, will, and creative act—while the latter denied the correspondences and moral perfections embedded in the Law’s commands and prohibitions, and likewise denied the wisdom and mercy contained in His creation and volitional decree.