the Quran and the Sunnah that explains it. But when the Messenger’s teaching differs from the Quran’s apparent meaning, they act only upon its apparent meaning. Thus they became renegades, passing out of Islam as an arrow passes through its quarry.

The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said to their first representative:

“You would indeed have failed and lost if I did not act justly.”

If someone allows that the Messenger might betray his trust and act unjustly concerning the wealth Allah entrusted to him, while believing that he is Allah’s trusted messenger of His revelation, then he has followed an unjust liar. He has allowed that someone truthful and trustworthy concerning the tidings from heaven entrusted to him by Allah might betray his trust and act unjustly concerning the wealth entrusted to him. Hence the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“Does the One in heaven trust me, while you do not trust me?”

Or words to that effect. He, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, was saying that faithfully discharging the trust of revelation is a greater responsibility. The revelation that Allah has commanded people to obey is the revelation concerning his judgments and his distribution of wealth. These people may reject many teachings of the Sunnah by impugning reason rather than rejecting the transmitted material, just as many adherents of innovation reject teachings of the Sunnah known among scholars to be mass-transmitted, such as intercession, the Cistern, the Bridge, divine decree, and other matters.

The third source:

“The mass-transmitted teachings of the Sunnah” from the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, either accepted by the scholars acquainted with them or transmitted by trustworthy narrators. These, too, are among the teachings that scholars of jurisprudence, hadith, and Sufism, and most scholars generally, agree must be followed. Some speculative theologians, however, have rejected them. Many of them have denied that knowledge can be obtained through any of them, and it only entails knowledge; thus they did not