On this point, they fall into two groups. Most say, “Deny whatever your reason does not affirm,” while some say, “Rather, suspend judgment concerning it.”
“Whatever your rational inferences deny—inferences over which you disagree and waver more than all other people on earth—deny it, and refer to those inferences whenever you dispute. For that is the truth I have obliged you to follow. As for anything mentioned in the Book and the Sunnah that contradicts these inferences of yours, or affirms what your reason has not apprehended—according to the approach of most of them—know that I am testing you by revealing it, not so that you may derive guidance from it, but so that you may strive to explain it through irregular linguistic usages, obscure expressions, and unusual turns of speech. Alternatively, remain silent about it, entrusting knowledge of it to Allah while denying that it indicates any attributes whatsoever.”
This is what the position of these speculative theologians really amounts to. I have seen some of them explicitly state the substance of this, and it is an inescapable consequence of the position they all hold. It entails that Allah’s Book cannot serve as a guide to knowing Allah; that the Messenger is excluded from teaching and conveying the attributes of the One who sent him; and that, when people dispute, they should not refer their disagreements to Allah and the Messenger. Rather, they should refer them to the likes of what they followed in the age of ignorance, and to the likes of the authorities to which those who do not believe in the prophets turn for judgment: the Brahmins and philosophers—who are polytheists—the Magians, and some of the Sabians.
Yet referring matters in this way only makes things worse and does not resolve disagreement, for each group has its own false authorities to whom they wish to turn for judgment, although they have been commanded to reject them.
How closely the condition of these speculative theologians resembles what He, glorified and exalted, describes in His words:
“Have you not seen those who claim