that He be the source of all guidance and knowledge, and the source of all help and strength, and that the servant seek guidance from none but Him and help from none but Him.

Since the servant is created, governed by his Lord, brought into being, and fashioned, he turns in his knowledge and deeds to his Creator, Originator, Lord, and Maker. This establishes an order that accords with the truth and an arrangement consistent with reality. For building the branch upon the root and giving precedence to the root over the branch is what is right. This, then, is the sound method, in harmony with the natural disposition Allah has instilled, His creation, His Book, and His sunnah.

It is established in Sahīh Muslim, on the authority of ‘Ā’isha (1), that when the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, rose for the night prayer, he would say:

“O Allah, Lord of Gabriel, Michael, and Isrāfīl, Originator of the heavens and the earth, Knower of the unseen and the seen! You judge between Your servants concerning their disagreements. Guide me, by Your permission, to the truth concerning which they differ. Indeed, You guide whom You will to a straight path.”

As for the method of philosophy and speculative theology, its adherents began with themselves, making themselves the root from which they derive the branches and the foundation upon which they build. They discussed how they acquire knowledge: sometimes through the senses, sometimes through reason, and sometimes through both.

They made sensory knowledge, self-evident knowledge, and the like the foundation without which no knowledge can be acquired. Then they claimed that through this they perceive only matters close to them—natural, mathematical, and ethical matters—and made these three the foundations