Shaykh al-Islām—may Allah have mercy on him—also said:

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When Allah sent Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, with His Book—which is guidance, healing, and light—and made it the finest discourse and the finest of narratives, and the straight path for those devoted to understanding and reflection, recitation and remembrance, and listening and spiritual states, those who held fast to it in knowledge, spiritual state, recitation, and listening, inwardly and outwardly, were truly Muslims—particularly the community of Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.

Then, when some of those concerned with discourse and the Quran’s wording deviated towards other discourse, and some of those concerned with listening and vocal expression turned to listening to something else, this deviation appeared among four related groups:

One group abandoned learning from it, examining it, and reflecting upon it, turning instead to other discourse: that of the Sabians or the Jews, or discourse derived from it, akin to it, or of a similar kind. These are the deviant practitioners of speculative theology.

Opposite them are people who rendered its letters correctly, memorized it, and recited it, without comprehending it or