is better than that of the polytheists, the Magians, and the Sabians, as Muslims unanimously agree. It is well known that this issue is among the greatest questions concerning the fundamentals of religion, discussed by most groups of humankind. How, then, can someone unfamiliar with the views held by humankind pass judgment on the majority of respected men of reason? Of all the views held by rational people, he knows only those of comparatively few groups.

As for the leading authorities of Islam—the Companions, the Successors, and those who followed them—neither he nor others like him are familiar with their views on this subject, as his writings and those of his peers attest. Likewise, he is unfamiliar with the views of the leading jurists and the leading authorities in hadith and Sufism. Nor is he familiar with the views of various groups among the earlier and later speculative theologians, including the Murji’ah