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Whoever opposes what the Messenger brought has neither knowledge nor justice in doing so. Rather, he has nothing but ignorance, injustice, conjecture, “and what their souls desire, although guidance has already come to them from their Lord.”

This is because whatever the Messenger has reported is true, both inwardly and outwardly. It is therefore inconceivable that the truth should lie in its opposite. Thus, whoever believes the opposite holds a false belief, and a false belief cannot constitute knowledge. Whatever the Messenger has commanded is just, containing no injustice. Whoever forbids it has therefore forbidden justice, and whoever commands its opposite has commanded injustice, for the opposite of justice is injustice. Thus, whatever contradicts what he brought can only be ignorance and injustice, conjecture and what souls desire.

Such opposition falls into one of two categories: at best, it was a law prescribed for one of the prophets and subsequently abrogated; at worst, it was never prescribed at all, but is a substituted law. Everything that contradicts the judgment of Allah and His Messenger is therefore either an abrogated law or a substituted law that Allah never prescribed. Rather, someone legislated it without Allah’s permission, as He says:

“Or do they have partners who have ordained for them in religion what Allah has not permitted?”

Yet either of these may occur in subtle and intricate matters through independent reasoning on the part of their proponents, who, in doing so, have exerted