and He will surely make evident those who lie.” The Most High also said:

“And We made from among them leaders guiding by Our command when they were patient and were certain of Our signs.”

And the Most High said:

“By time, indeed, mankind is in loss, except for those who believe and do righteous deeds and encourage one another to truth and encourage one another to patience.”

If an adherent of misguided doctrines remains steadfast in his position, this is because of the truth it contains. For every religious innovation embraced by a large group must contain enough of the truth brought by the Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and affirmed by the adherents of the Sunnah and hadith, to account for its acceptance. Pure falsehood is never accepted under any circumstances.

In short, the steadfastness and stability found among the adherents of hadith and the Sunnah exceed many, many times over those found among the practitioners of speculative theology and philosophy. Indeed, the philosopher is more unsettled and bewildered in his position than the speculative theologian, because the latter possesses truth received from the prophets that the philosopher does not possess. Thus, you find someone like Abū al-Husayn al-Basrī and others like him more steadfast than someone like Ibn Sīnā and others like him.

You also find that the adherents of philosophy and speculative theology are more divided and at odds than anyone else, although each claims that what he says is incontrovertibly true and established by demonstrative proof. By contrast, the adherents of the Sunnah and hadith are the most united and harmonious of people. The closer any group is to them, the closer it is to unity and harmony. Thus, the Muʿtazilah are more united and harmonious than the philosophers, for the philosophers hold so many different positions concerning divine matters, the afterlife, and prophethood—indeed, even concerning the natural sciences, mathematics, and the properties of the celestial spheres—that none but the Lord of Majesty can enumerate them.