The Agreement of Rational and Scriptural Evidence and the Meaning of Ali's Statement on Wiping Over the Khuff

Question:
This questioner says: Is the default that rational evidence agrees with scriptural evidence? And what is the meaning of Ali's statement (may Allah be pleased with him): "If religion were based on opinion, wiping over the khuff would be from the top, or rather not from the bottom"? Please clarify this for me.

Answer:
The statement of 'Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) is clear: religion is not by intellect, but rather by the legal evidence. However, the intellect understands the evidence; the intellect understands the evidence. The evidence and the rule are that sound intellect never contradicts explicit transmission. If they contradict, then either the transmission is not authentic, or the intellect is not sound—either the transmission is not authentic, or the intellect is not explicit. One of them has a defect. But if there is no defect in either, they can never contradict each other.