who believe in superstition and false gods, and say of the disbelievers, ‘These are better guided than the believers’?”
In the two Sahīh collections, Abū Mūsā reports that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said:
“The believer who recites the Quran is like a citron: its taste is pleasant and its fragrance is pleasant. The believer who does not recite the Quran is like a date: its taste is pleasant, but it has no fragrance. The hypocrite who recites the Quran is like basil: its fragrance is pleasant, but its taste is bitter. The hypocrite who does not recite the Quran is like a colocynth: its taste is bitter, and it has no fragrance.”
He thus made clear that those who recite the Quran include both believers and hypocrites.
Section
Here I am not discussing disputed points, lest it be said that I am using one disputed matter to establish another. Rather, I am describing the general character of their discourse. I say:
There is no doubt that all their discourse is confined to definitions that yield conceptions—whether essential, descriptive, or verbal—and inferences that yield judgments—whether through generality and inclusion, similarity and analogy, or induction and systematic examination.
Most of their discourse is not free of contrivance, whether in matters of knowledge or of expression. This involves either