Chapter on Ghurra Through Debate and Argumentation

Chapter on Being Deluded by Disputation

The Excellence of Discernment through Argumentation and Refutation against the People of [Other] Religions

A group—contentious and disputatious—is deluded by disputation and refutation against the dissenters from among the people of vain desires and the people of [other] religions. They interpret that to mean that no deed is sound for a servant until his faith is sound, and they uphold the Sunna of God's Prophet ﷺ. Yet according to them, not a single one [of their opponents] truly knows his Lord, nor does anyone who says other than what they say.

A misguided and misguiding group. They do not perceive their own misguidance because of their expansiveness in argumentation, their knowledge of the subtleties of the schools of discourse, and the eloquence of their expression in refuting those who oppose them. In their own estimation they are among those who speak about God—exalted and glorified—and speak the truth, and among those who intend [to refute] every misguidance. No one has more knowledge of God than they, nor is anyone more entitled [to speak of Him] than they. All nations besides them are astray, and God—exalted and glorified—does not punish anyone like them. Rather, no one in their time—neither their contemporaries nor others—is saved. Among the deluded are those who claim that and arrogate it to themselves, and they testify against [all others] that they are nothing but disbelievers. They are numerous sects, each one declaring the others disbelievers, each faction hostile to the other, and every group among them is deluded. You will not see anyone [among them] who concedes that another group is more entitled to the truth than they.

The second group among those deluded by disputation and discernment through argumentation: they speak the truth and follow no religion other than it, yet they have been deluded by disputation. They hold that no statement is sound without scrutiny and vindication, and the establishment of the proof against those who oppose them. They have been so deluded by this that they have severed the loan of their faculties through preoccupation away from God—exalted and glorified. They are blinded to their abundant sins and errors, while they suppose that this [activity] is most befitting for them and brings them nearest to the good pleasure [of God]. They too do not consider it safe that their disputation might err in its interpretation and its occurrence, except that their creed is the Sunna—[perpetually]—despite their delusion.

I said: By what means do they negate being deluded by that?

He said: As for the misguided group, it negates that by returning to themselves, and they claim that from the Quran—

nor does one judge by the ambiguous over the definitive." And likewise from the Sunnah—it has its definitive and its ambiguous, and one does not judge by the ambiguous over the definitive.

And that errors in interpretation are beyond counting, and that the soul deceives itself, and knowing that God, Exalted and Majestic, will question it about that by which it professes religion. And that the jamā'a (the community) has proceeded upon guidance, and the Sunnah of its Prophet is with it, and one does not depart from their consensus, even if that seems good in its [the soul's] mind.

So if you hold fast to what I have described for you, you will perceive its misguidance, and do not be deceived by the severity of its argumentation, since you have come to know that others besides it who oppose it are fierce in argumentation, skilled in disputation, while being astray in its [the soul's] estimation—and likewise misguiding. So you cannot be sure that you are not likewise in the sight of God, Exalted and Majestic, even if you are skilled in disputation and contentions.

If it [the soul] accuses itself regarding opinions and interpretations, and is cautious at the ambiguous, and judges by the definitive over it, and pauses regarding that in which God has not granted it [the capacity for] investigation, and does not depart from the consensus of those who have passed—then its delusion will be removed from it, and it will return to its soundness from its misguidance.

As for the sect that is correct regarding the truth, along with its being deluded away from God, Exalted and Majestic, by contentions and disputation about that which is more worthy of it—its delusion in that is by its knowing that God, Exalted and Majestic, counts in favor of those who have passed that by which He made them worship Him. For He encountered many among them—people from among the people of innovations and caprices—yet He did not make their lives, nor their religion, an arena for contentions, nor was He occupied thereby from examining himself and working for the day of his poverty, unless he sees a situation of need in which, if he speaks therein with the truth, [truth] is accepted from him. So he speaks with the truth and is wary of erring against God, Exalted and Majestic.

They were thus upon that, and they condemned disputation and contentions, and they transmitted that from their Prophet ﷺ, as Abū Umāma narrated from him that he said:

«No people ever went astray after having been guided except that they were given disputation» .

And God, Exalted and Glorified, censured that, saying: and he is the fiercest of adversaries [al-Baqarah 2:204] .

And the Most High said regarding Quraysh: «Nay, they are a contentious people» [al-Zukhruf 43:58] .

Thus He censured disputation and contention.

So let the believer return to himself and say to it: You only submit to following the Sunna and your disputing with the people of vain desires — and your claiming that disputation and contention are abandonment of the Sunna — is because the Prophet, peace be upon him, forbade by his Sunna disputation and contentions, and grew angry at his Companions, until it was as though pomegranate seeds had been crushed upon his face from the intensity of anger, when he came out upon them while they were disputing — and they were the most deserving of people in understanding, insight, and [skill in] argumentation — and he said: "Was it for this that I was sent? Was it with this that you were commanded? Do not strike parts of the Book of God, Exalted and Glorified, against other parts. Look to what you have been commanded and act upon it, and what you have been forbidden from, desist from it."

Rather, he was sent to all the people of [various] religions, and he debated them only with what was recited to them from the Revelation. Had he wished, he could have addressed them with analogies and subtle theological discourse, and had that been guidance, he would have been the most entitled to it and the most capable of it. Yet he established the proof only through the Revelation, and he turned away from debating them with subtleties. Indeed, that was done out of pleasure and love for God, Exalted and Glorified. So abandoning disputation and contentions is from the Sunna.

And he also returns to it with another reminder (tadhkira), [saying]: If I were saved and the people of the earth perished, or if I perished and they were saved — my establishing the proof against the people of vain desires would not benefit me, and that would not harm me. Rather, let me establish the proof against myself before God, Exalted and Glorified, regarding my neglect of His command, so that I may fulfill what He has commanded me, and abstain from what He has forbidden me, and profit the days of my life for the day of my poverty and my meeting with my Lord, for they have indeed distracted me from myself and from the work that would bring about my salvation.

Moreover, nothing assures me that if I establish the proof through some interpretation and analogy that I consider to be guidance, it may in fact be —