Thus, when a servant acknowledges his need for Allah, calls upon Him, and persistently studies the words of Allah, His Messenger, the Companions, the Successors, and the leading scholars of the Muslims, the path of guidance opens before him.

If he has also learned the ultimate limits reached by the philosophers and speculative theologians in this matter, recognizes that most of what they claim to be demonstrative proof is merely a specious argument, and sees that most of what they rely upon amounts to an unfounded claim, a specious argument constructed from an invalid inference, a universal proposition that holds only in particular cases, an unfounded claim of consensus, or reliance on terms with multiple meanings in both their positions and their proofs—then his faith in, and knowledge of, what the Quran and Sunnah have brought will increase. When these arguments are dressed up in lengthy, elaborate wording unfamiliar to anyone who does not know their terminology, they deceive the inexperienced just as a mirage deceives the thirsty. For:

“The beauty of a thing is revealed by its opposite.”

The better someone knows falsehood, the more deeply he reveres the truth and appreciates its worth, once he is guided to it.

As for those who have progressed only partway in speculative theology, there is reason to fear for them what need not be feared for those who have never entered it or those who have pursued it to its ultimate conclusion. Those who have never entered it remain unharmed, while those who have pursued it to the end know where it leads and no longer fear that something else remains beyond it. When the truth becomes clear to such a person, he accepts it, thirsting as he does for it. Someone who has progressed only partway, however, is misled by the doctrines he receives through uncritical imitation of those who venerate these thinkers.

Someone once said:

“What does the most harm to the world is a half-trained speculative theologian and a half-trained