The twentieth point:

Allah, Exalted is He, sent the messengers and revealed the scriptures concerning knowledge and action, bringing good words and righteous deeds, guidance and the religion of truth. All this involves positive content in belief and action. In matters of belief, He commanded detailed beliefs concerning Allah’s names and attributes and everything else one needs concerning promises of reward and threats of punishment. In matters of action, He commanded diverse forms of inward and outward worship. As for negation, the scriptures expressed it in general terms and prohibited whatever undermines what is commanded. Thus, the divine scriptures and the laws of the messengers abound in affirmations concerning what one is to know and do.

As for the negationists among the philosophical thinkers and their like, negation and prohibition predominate among them. Their beliefs are dominated by denial: “Not such-and-such, not such-and-such, not such-and-such…”

In matters of action, censure and abstention predominate, taking the form of corrupt asceticism and corrupt scrupulousness: “He does not do this, he does not do that, he does not do that…” Yet they offer no righteous deeds for a person to perform that would benefit him and keep him from harmful, corrupt deeds. Thus, most of those who follow their paths are idle and inactive, given to negation in both their beliefs and their actions.