their approach to the texts of the Quran and Sunnah—such as those concerning the divine attributes and other reports and commands—fall into the following groups:

“One group” distorts either their wording or their meaning. They reject and negate what the Messenger—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—affirmed, claiming that this is what sound reason requires, with reason sitting in judgment over revelation.

“Another group” does no more than recite the texts, without understanding their meaning. They claim that this is what revelation requires and what the early generations followed, and that Allah did not intend His servants to understand these texts. Thus, they “know nothing of the Scripture beyond mere recitation”—that is, simply reciting it—“and they do nothing but conjecture.”

Others then write works on branches of knowledge, claiming that these are religious sciences, that both the scriptural texts and reason substantiate them, and that they constitute Allah’s religion, despite their contradicting the Book of Allah. These are the ones who write the Scripture with their own hands and then, in one way or another, say that it is from Allah.

Reflect, then, on how these verses encompass all three categories. His words describing those people—

“Do you tell them what Allah has revealed to you, so that they may use it to argue against you before your Lord?”—

describe the condition of those who conceal the texts that their opponents use as evidence. Some even prohibit the transmission of hadiths reported from the Messenger—may Allah bless him and grant him peace. If they could conceal the Quran, they would do so. Instead, they conceal the ways in which it establishes meanings, including the knowledge deduced from it, and offer people in its place what they write with their own hands, claiming that it comes from Allah.