76 – I said, “It has therefore become clear to you, from Allah’s rulings in His Book, that Allah has made obedience to His Messenger obligatory, and that Allah—exalted is He—has assigned him the task of clarifying whatever has been revealed, whether particular, abrogating, or abrogated?”

77 – He replied, “Indeed. I used to maintain the opposite view until the error of those who followed that path became evident to me. People have taken two courses here: one group accepts no report at all, claiming that every clarification is found in the Book of Allah.”

78 – I asked, “What consequence did that view entail for them?”

79 – He responded, “It led from one grave matter to another, so they declared, ‘Whoever performs anything that can be called prayer and the least that can be called zakah has discharged his duty; there are no fixed times for these, even if he were to pray only two rakʿahs each day—or, they said, every few days. And whatever is not set down in the Book of Allah imposes no obligation on anyone!’”

80 – He continued, “Another group said, ‘Whenever there is Qur’anic text on a matter we accept the reports about it,’ yet they spoke almost the same as the first concerning what the Qur’an does not mention. The same confusion overtook them—or something close to it—so that, after first rejecting reports, they ended up accepting them, unable to discern abrogating from abrogated, or specific from general.”

81 – “The error and misguidance in both of these approaches is plain, and I follow neither of them.”

82 – “But is there any proof that would permit what is forbidden by claiming comprehensive knowledge when one in fact lacks such knowledge?”

83 – I said, “Yes.”

84 – He asked, “What is it?”

85 – I said, “Consider this: the man beside me—are his blood and his property inviolable?”

86 – He answered, “Yes.”