his words, and elsewhere I have explained what proved difficult for him and for these others.

Allah sent His messengers with the truth and created His servants upon the innate disposition. Whoever perfects that disposition through the message with which Allah sent His messengers will find guidance and certainty beyond all doubt and will not fall into contradiction. These men, however, corrupted both their rational disposition and their revelation-based law through the doubts and disagreements that beset them, amid which they failed to find the truth. This has been discussed in detail elsewhere.

The point here is that, after mentioning this, he said:

“Who has ever attained the goal in this field,
and who has tasted this (1) drink?

The utmost advance of reason is but a fetter,
and most striving of the learned is but error.
Our souls are estranged from our bodies,
and the sum of our worldly life is pain and bane.
Throughout our lives, our inquiries gained us nothing
save that we amassed ‘It was said’ and ‘They said.’”

And he said (2): “I have carefully considered the methods of dialectical theology and the approaches of philosophy, but I have found that they neither heal the sick nor quench the thirsty. I found the way of the Quran to be the most direct. As for affirmation (3), read:

“To Him ascends good speech, and righteous deeds raise it.”

[Surah Fātir: 10]