He replied:

All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds.

As for the first question:

The questioner asks: “Is it permissible to discuss questions concerning the fundamentals of religion that people have debated, but about which no statement has been transmitted from our master Muhammad, or not?” This question reflects the false, innovated formulations that have become familiar.

As for questions that truly belong to the fundamentals of religion—those that deserve to be called its fundamentals, meaning the religion with which Allah sent His Messenger and revealed His Book—it is not permissible to say that no statement concerning them has been transmitted from the Prophet. Indeed, such a claim is inherently contradictory. Their being fundamentals of religion necessarily means that they are among its most important matters and that religion requires them. To deny that any statement concerning them has been transmitted from the Messenger therefore entails one of two things: either the Messenger neglected important matters essential to religion and did not explain them, or he explained them but the community did not transmit them. Both possibilities are categorically false. This is among the gravest attacks that hypocrites make against religion. Only someone ignorant of the realities of what the Messenger brought, or ignorant of what people grasp with their hearts, or ignorant of both, would entertain this and similar notions.

His ignorance of the first leaves him unaware of the fundamentals and subsidiary matters of religion contained in what the Messenger brought.

His ignorance of the second leads him to include among truths apprehended by reason what he himself calls