Is it obligatory to know Allah through the intellect first, and is the science of theology (kalam) the method for studying creed?

The questioner : They say that it is obligatory to know Allah through the intellect first, and they have made the science of theology (kalam) the method for studying creed.

The Shaykh : Yes, indeed. Also, we say, as we said earlier, that your claim must have evidence from the Book of Allah and from the hadith of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). So produce your proof if you are truthful, and they have no way to do that at all. Second, there is no doubt that they cannot deny that intellects differ completely from one another. The intellects of the Jews are not the intellects of the Christians, and the intellects of the Jews and Christians are not the intellects of the Muslims. The intellects of the righteous Muslims are not the intellects of the wicked Muslims, and the intellects of the righteous Muslim scholars are not the intellects of the ignorant Muslims, and so on. There are many, very many varying degrees. So which intellect should be used to understand and know our Lord, Blessed and Exalted is He? This is a matter where we can say: what comes from a sane person, regardless of what is said about that intellect? Regardless of who it is, for example, a Muslim, a disbeliever, an ignorant person, and so on. Third, third, and perhaps lastly, if the intellect were sufficient for knowing Allah the Exalted, what would be the point of this severe disagreement? The sending of the messengers from the Lord of the worlds, the Wise, the All-Knowing, and the sending down of the books would have been in vain, and Glorified and Exalted is He from what they associate. Then there would have been no need for something like the saying of Allah the Exalted: The intellect is what should judge in knowing the Creator. And we see that intellects differ most severely in knowing the Creator, in what befits Him, and in what He should be kept free from. The intellects differ. So what is the evidence for the correctness of one intellect over another, if we do not return to the Book of Allah and the hadith of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)?
I said, third, and perhaps lastly, and now a fourth point has come to me, and we say, perhaps lastly, that this fourth thing is: if intellects differ, there is no room for preferring one intellect over another, or one opinion over another. But when Allah the Exalted sent down the Book as a protection for the people, He described it by His saying: So we find this much disagreement when we return to the intellects. This much disagreement will not unite the Muslims, neither on the error that is claimed to be better than the truth that is disputed, nor on error, nor on truth, because there is no proof from Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, because the reference is the intellect, and this intellect is unstable and differing. But when Allah the Exalted referred us, when we disputed and differed, to something like His saying: He referred us to a matter, a reference point, in which there is no instability, as we heard earlier from the saying of Allah the Exalted: So returning to the intellect is returning to an unstable matter with no standard. And reality confirms this, because the scholars of kalam, because these Islamic sects went astray only because of their submission to their intellects and their turning away from the Book of their Lord and the Sunnah of their Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family).