that what they have stated contradicts the Messenger—may Allah bless him and grant him peace. Rather, they suppose that the meaning they intend is the very meaning intended by the Messenger—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—and his Companions. Muslims therefore need two things:

The first is to know what Allah and His Messenger—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—intended by the expressions used in the Quran and Sunnah. This requires knowing the language in which the Quran was revealed and what the Companions, those who followed them in righteousness, and the other Muslim scholars said about the meanings of those expressions. When the Messenger addressed them through the Quran and Sunnah, he explained what he intended by those expressions. The Companions’ knowledge of the Quran’s meanings was more complete than their memorization of its wording, and they transmitted those meanings to the succeeding generation more extensively than they transmitted its wording. As for the general meanings that all Muslims need—such as the meaning of tawhīd, of “the One” and “the One and Only,” of faith and Islam, and the like—all the Companions knew what Allah and His Messenger—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—wanted them to know. Yet only a few of them memorized the entire Quran, although every part of it was memorized by a number of them sufficient for mass transmission.

The Quran is filled with descriptions of Allah as the One and Only and the One, with statements that your God is One, that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah, and the like. The Companions must therefore have understood this, for knowing it is the foundation of religion. It was the first thing to which the Messenger—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—called people, and it was the first