nor making it clear nor pointing to the truth. Rather, it would be better for him to remain silent about what indicates falsehood, just as he remains silent about what indicates the truth, than to say what indicates falsehood while saying nothing that indicates the truth. This is what the position of the founder and those who agree with him entails.
According to them, then, in this matter—which is among the greatest foundations of religion—the absence of the Book and the Messenger would be better and more beneficial for people than their presence. For, on their view, the Book and the Messenger neither guided people to the truth in this matter nor explained it. Nor did they even refrain from saying what indicates falsehood, which would have left people as they had been in the pre-Islamic age of ignorance. Instead, they spoke at length in words that, according to these people, indicate falsehood.
It is well known that this position constitutes disbelief in the explicit teachings of the Book and the Messenger. Every position that necessarily entails disbelief is among the gravest forms of falsehood and misguidance; indeed, it is itself disbelief. This is an inescapable consequence of their position, although some of them do not recognize the misguidance into which they have fallen or the disbelief their position entails. If such a person recognized this, he would retract his position.
This is why someone who says something that constitutes disbelief is not judged to be an unbeliever if the proof conveyed by the prophetic message has not been established against him, for he may not know what the Messenger brought concerning that matter. Some of these people may suppose that their party’s position is supported by evidence from the Book, the Sunnah, or a report from one of the early generations.
If they come to know that the position they profess—that He is neither above the Throne nor above the world—is indicated by neither the Book nor the Sunnah, and was never stated by anyone among the community’s early generations and leading scholars—the people of the three virtuous generations—but that these people instead expressly affirmed the opposite, as is well known from the relevant discussion, it becomes clear to them that they are misguided and in opposition to the Book of Allah, the Sunnah of His Messenger, and the consensus of the earliest believers. And whoever knows that their position contradicts this