they say, ‘Shall we believe as the fools believe?’ Indeed, it is they who are the fools, but they do not know. (13)” [al-Baqarah 8–13]

“And when they meet…” and other similar verses.

When the polytheists and all others who rejected the truth denied that the Quran was sent down by Allah and rejected the Messenger’s message, they went astray and disagreed over what to say about the Book and the Messenger. They made contradictory claims whose falsity is apparent to anyone who examines them. Others among them, seeing that these claims were contradictory, refrained from adopting any of them. Instead, they confined themselves to rejecting the Quran and the Messenger, claiming that they possessed evidence proving that he was not Allah’s Messenger and that the Quran was not sent down by Allah Most High. They therefore reached their conclusion on the basis of that evidence, then said, “Let it be whatever it may be; we need not determine what it is.”

Likewise, those who deemed possible the meanings of the Quran intended by Allah Most High and His Messenger in the Book and Sunnah divided into two camps concerning the Quran and hadith. One camp interprets the words of Allah and His Messenger according to other meanings which, upon examination, are clearly neither intended by Allah nor conveyed by His words. Others said, “It is enough for us that those meanings be ruled out; and after