Third, they are told: Who has conceded to you that reason agrees with the position of the deniers? Rather, sound reason agrees only with what the Messenger affirmed. There is no contradiction whatsoever between sound reason and authentic revelation. We have discussed this at length elsewhere, explaining that the supposedly rational arguments they advance against what the Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, brought are nothing but ignorance and misguidance, which their later followers blindly inherited from their predecessors. They called these rational insights, whereas they are merely products of ignorance. When any of them is asked to substantiate the claims of the leaders of misguidance through reason, he falls back on nothing but blind adherence to them. Thus, they disbelieve in revelation and contradict reason out of blind adherence to those whom they imagine to be versed in rational matters.

Their relationship with their misguided leaders is like that of Pharaoh’s people with him. Allah Most High says:

“He made fools of his people, and they obeyed him.”

And He, Most High, says of him:

“He and his troops behaved arrogantly in the land without right, thinking that they would not be returned to Us.”

“So We seized him and his troops and cast them into the sea. See, then, what was the end of the wrongdoers!”

“We made them leaders inviting to the Fire, and on the Day of Resurrection they will not be helped.”

“We caused a curse to pursue them in this world, and on the Day of Resurrection they will be among the despised.”

Pharaoh is the leader of the deniers. Hence, the leading exponents of negation have explicitly acknowledged that they hold his position, as the advocates of union among the Jahmī deniers openly declare. For he denied that Allah is above, accused Moses of lying about this, and denied that Allah spoke to Moses. Allah Most High says:

“Pharaoh said, ‘O Hāmān, build me a lofty tower so that I may reach the pathways—the pathways of the heavens—and look upon the God of Moses, though I certainly think he is a liar.’”