This is what God has commanded the Holy Prophet ( ṣ ) so as...

This is what God has commanded the Holy Prophet ( ṣ ) so as to invite mankind to the Divine religion with wisdom and beautiful preaching and argue with them in the best way.

In citing outward meanings and texts of revelation or relying on reason and rational analyses, most of these schools of theology have gone into extremes. The Ahl al-Ḥadīth [^7] and Ḥanbalīs from among the Sunnīs and the Akhbārī s[^8] have adopted extreme literalism, just as the Mu‘tazilī s[^9] have extremely kept aloof from the literal implications of revelation in their rational analyses and interpretations.

In their midst, there have been also figures and schools ( madhāhib ) that assumed the middle way, as Abū ’l-Ḥasan al-Ash‘arī[^10] and Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī[^11] had such an idea. As to whether they achieved their aim or not, it is another thing which can be dealt with elsewhere.

If we fairly and meticulously reflect on this, we will find out that out of these scholastic tendencies and schools of Muslim theology, the only school ( madhhab ) which has correctly adopted the middle path is the school of the Holy Prophet’s ( ‘a ).

They are the ones whom the Holy Prophet ( ṣ )[^12] has called the Lesser of the Two Weighty Things ( thiql al-aṣghar ) alongside the Qur’an which is the Greater of the Two Weighty Things ( thiql al-akbar ), and clinging to them as well as to the Qur’an is the source of salvation and freedom from deviation.[^13] In another statement, the Prophet ( ṣ ) has likened them to the Ark of Noah[^14] and whoever embarks on it shall be saved from storm which does not refer here to the storm of wind and drowning in the seas but the storm of capricious and fallacious views and ideas.

And anyone who turns away from it will drown. Their approach – as Imām ‘Alī ( ‘a ) has stated – is to move along the middle way, and not to deviate toward the left or right.