Does the term "rationalist" apply to the liberal in this age?

Question:
May Allah reward you, Honorable Shaykh. This questioner says: Does the term "rationalists" apply to the contemporaries in our time who may be called, or who call themselves, liberals?

Answer:
The liberal who does not profess Islam, but rather professes the state of the age, and does not profess Islam, that is the liberal. As for the rationalist, he is the one who does not accept what his intellect does not verify; he takes his intellect as the measure. He says, "Even if the hadith were authentic, I am not prepared to abandon my intellect." They say so. One of their leaders, one of their great ones, says, "I am not prepared to abandon my intellect for an authentic hadith." Yes.