“No man relates to a people an account beyond their understanding without its becoming a trial for some of them.”

And the statement of ‘Abdullāh ibn ‘Abbās concerning the interpretation of the verses:

“What assurance do you have that, if I explained them to you, you would not disbelieve? Your disbelief in them would consist in denying them.”

These reports are true. Yet each of them identifies what was left unspoken with his own claims of secrets and realities which, when disclosed, prove to be falsehood, disbelief, and hypocrisy. Even Abū Hāmid al-Ghazālī, in “Minhāj al-Qāsidīn” (The Path of the Seekers) and elsewhere, and others like him, cited these lines attributed to ‘Alī ibn al-Husayn:

“How many a jewel of knowledge, were I to disclose it,
Would bring the charge: ‘You are an idol-worshipper!’
And Muslim men would deem my blood lawful to shed,
Regarding their foulest deed as something good.”

If, then, such are the methods of those who claim a depth of understanding and knowledge of secrets that has led them outside the Sunnah and the Muslim community—who allege that this knowledge concerning religion or the created world belongs exclusively to them, believe its general and ambiguous statements, and claim to have been granted an understanding of the realities of worship and purity of religious devotion that was not granted to the earliest generation, the guardians of Islam and luminaries of the faith, yet do not dare reject or deny these claims, despite their falsehood sometimes being apparent and sometimes hidden—then it is evident that reason and religion require us to recognize that prophethood and messengership have the stronger claim to all deep understanding, knowledge, insight, and comprehensive understanding of the secrets of things and their inner realities. No believer disputes this. We are now addressing those whose hearts contain faith.